The UK Budget

[Ramirez]

I am interested to hear the opinions of the British board members on the Conservative government budget.

From what I have read they want to emulate the 1990s Canadian Liberal government success in cutting deficit and debt.

They seem to be missing a couple of key things though, the Liberal government
had a booming economy both domestically and in the US which they leveraged on by allowing the Canadian dollar to devalue against the green back. That allowed them to both raise taxes and cut spending.

I have no idea where the UK is going to find an economy right now to transfer wealth from.

 

[Tez3]

It wasn't a Budget. the Chancellor was announcing the measures the government were taking to correct the deficit. There's no 'wealth' being transferred, its about cutting costs in the various departments, it's a tightening of belts. For most of us we won't know how it affects us until more details about the nitty gritty are released. My ministry has been told to lose 25,000 civilian posts, and 17.000 military. We won't know more than that until it's been decided where the axe is going to fall.

 

[Ramirez]

It wasn't a Budget. the Chancellor was announcing the measures the government were taking to correct the deficit. There's no 'wealth' being transferred, its about cutting costs in the various departments, it's a tightening of belts. For most of us we won't know how it affects us until more details about the nitty gritty are released. My ministry has been told to lose 25,000 civilian posts, and 17.000 military. We won't know more than that until it's been decided where the axe is going to fall.

Thanks for the clarification Tez, do you have an opinion on it ...good or bad?

Here is a column you might find interesting....can't say how accurate it is because the writer calls it a budget although we might be talking about a "Budget" where the chancellor of the exchequer (I think that is what he is called, its minister of finance in Canada) makes a presentation in front of Parliament.

Frum column

 

[Ramirez]

There's no 'wealth' being transferred,.

I was unclear, when I said wealth being transferred I meant the Canadian government ran a current account surplus with the US by allowing the Canadian dollar sink to a low level. IE we exported more to the US, a transfer of wealth from the US to Canada (the money could have otherwise been spent domestically in the US).

 

[Tez3]

I'm waiting to see whether my job is going so don't really know what to think. The MOD cuts were announced on Tuesday by the Prime Minister, e are a bit stunned tbh but we braced for bigger cuts, it seems the Defence Minister managed to get the government to lessen the cuts. Our Brigade has just come back from Afghan and to be told there's cuts and compulsory redundancies is harsh. The soldiers wounded out there were told that there would be still places for them in the forces if they could manage the job, many can but now they are all being told they will have no job after all.
Yesterday was very general apart from a couple of things, we won't know how departments are going to make those cuts other than to expect 500,000 public sector jobs to be axed.