A letter a day to number 10. No 1,450
Tuesday 31 May 2016.
Dear Mr Cameron,
Against dire warnings of another global recession and the EU facing chaos as the two biggest eurozone economies face melt down with France declaring an economic emergency and Germany’s industrial production growth at zero percent, what exactly are governments doing and what’s the point of them? The Office for National Statistics has revealed that ‘Britain has the highest current account deficit since modern records began in 1948’. So what’s the point of George Osborne and his free market ideological nonsense?
The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s job is to manage the economy is it not? If he can’t manage it, and clearly he can’t, you might just as well hand the job to my granny and she’s been dead for 40 odd years. She did, however, manage a business for most of her life, including throughout WWII, so maybe you should buy George a Ouija board. Make it a cheap one as I doubt he’d listen anyway.
George Osborne now has five times the usual number of special advisers, according to the Independent, and I wonder how much they are costing us? What do they do all day apart from playing a silly game of ‘I’m next to useless’ standing in a circle? Not forgetting that he actually lives next door to you.
Britain’s foundation industries, which provide the building blocks like steel and chemicals for other industries, as a share of GDP are apparently down 43% in Britain, against 21% in other rich nations. Tata steel remains under threat of closure, the loss of which would only knock the industry share of GDP down further. The Guardian reports that UK growth is too biased towards consumer spending, with borrowing going up and imports being ‘sucked’ in. It further adds, ‘an enormous current account deficit and a collapse in the household saving ratio are usually consistent with the economy in the last stages of a wild boom’. Typically followed by a wild bust.
An economy relying on consumer spending is inherently unstable without the sustained production from core industries. It looks from where I am sitting that Osborne’s long term economic plan is leading us up the garden path to another recession, an exercise in boom and bust for Dummies. Once again, of course, ordinary people will suffer and take the hit whilst the big money does a runner and goes into lock down in its tax haven of choice. It really is a case of, when the going gets tough the rats abandon ship. A ship that doesn’t appear to have a captain who is of any use to man nor beast and is economically rudderless. Remind me, how much do we pay you and George for this?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/03/uk-free-market-economy-isnt-working
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments
Fear and Loathing in Great Britain 
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