The Economy

[DVL418]

RE: The Economy (aka George, it isn't working!)
On Monday Gideon suffered the humiliation of being booed at the Olympic Stadium.

The message of Osborne's humiliation couldn't have been clearer. The musical chairs of the past 24 hours count for nothing. The minister the public most want to see the back of is the man who has driven the economy into the first full-blown double-dip recession since the 1970s, while cutting taxes for the rich, and whose benefits cuts have tipped disabled claimants into suicide as Britain embraces the Paralympians.

Osborne has failed miserably, even on his own terms. His big (only!) idea was to cut spending and borrowing, and slash the deficit. The private sector would then ride to the rescue with investment and growth to fill the gap left by a smaller state.

Nothing of the kind has happened – any more than it has anywhere else such austerity packages have been driven through since the crash. Borrowing and the deficit are both rising because the economy is shrinking and tax receipts dropping through the floor. Instead of investing to take up the public sector slack, the big corporations and the City are sitting on cash mountains and the banks are still failing to lend four years after they were bailed (or part-bought) out by the state.

The result is falling living standards, insecurity, joblessness and underemployment, with a wave of new layoffs and insolvencies expected as cuts and tax rises bite deeper. Naturally ministers blame everyone but themselves - the eurozone crisis is the latest excuse, but Britain's slide into recession started before the Greek economic carcrash, and exports to Europe only started to fall earlier this summer.

Camaron is either a fool or a coward for jibbing at the oppotunity to dump the chancellor and his failed experiment. Problem is both are rich enough not to be hurt, but the rest of us will have to suffer.