English: Demonstrators march up Whitehall in London on 26 March 2011 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is an excellent, must-read article from the FT. Check it out!
via Britain and the cuts: Blow for Cameron as UK faces deeper cuts – FT.com.
The article highlights the need to massively increase austerity in the next parliament in the UK to avoid increased taxes or increased borrowing – the alternative is a collapse in public services.
The article is deeply embarrassing for Cameron’s government, ahead of the UK election next year. It once again questions Chancellor Osborne’s judgement. UK growth has been kick-started on the back of government guarantees for first-time home buyers. The UK has done little to increase exports and underlying skills in the economy. At the same time, the Independent Evaluation of the IMF has been critical of excessive focus on austerity, citing the UK.
This blog has consistently argued that the UK government did not have an effective strategy to reform the public sector – it’s either been the bacon-slicer or privatization.
So would you trust a future Conservative Government in the UK with the ax once again?
Thoughts?
English: NUT ATL UCU PCS strike rally outside the Forum in Norwich against draconian government cuts in their pension conditions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Dr Alf's Blog 
Dr Alf asks his readers whether they would trust a future Conservative Government with the axe again.
The answer has to be no because the cuts to the bloated public sector have been derisory and because no Government since Victorian times has cut fast enough or deep enough.
All of them of whatever political persuasion have failed to export enough or inspire risk averse UK businesses enough to do what they should have been doing.
They have also not been telling the public the hard truth about the world not being something that owes us a living and that UK levels of productivity per worker,the inherent laziness that afflicts too many people and excessive holidaymaking ,cannot be afforded.
People have been seduced by siren voices telling them that people need to have longer holidays so that they can “relax”,that they can eat themselves into smaller versions of the R101 Barrage balloon,drink too much ,export nothing and go on paying themselves the same money or even more money.
It is now too late for things to go on as they are irrespective of which party is in power so the real trouble will come after the election when the pump priming that has been going on for the past 6 to 8 months with road building feeds into the figures in April and early May next year but with a cliff that the country falls off in June,just 2 weeks after the General Election.
None of the political parties have the intellectual depth to deal with these questions and I question whether the public and our rulers,wallowing in nostalgia,past triumphs and events in World War 1 ,100 years ago, has the stomach for the change that is necessary.
I wait to be proved wrong but I am not holding my breath.