Chancellor George Osborne was wheeled out to produce one of the more absurd political speeches of our time this week. Osborne set himself up in a building site in the City of London, then invited in the media to tell them that opponents of ideological austerity had “lost the argument” and that the UK economy was “turning a corner”.
“We held our nerve when many told us to abandon our plan” he said. “The evidence increasingly suggests that our macroeconomic plan was the right one and is working.”
This triumphalist moment came on the back of news that UK GDP grew by 0.7% in the first 6 months of this year. This means the economy is still 3.2% smaller than 2008, and this is the slowest economic recovery in the last 100 years, meaning the UK recovered more quickly from the Great Depression than we are recovering from bailout out the banks.
More worrying than the lack of growth, is the manner in which even this meager growth is being generated – by an all-out assault on the rights of working people and the social contract.
What we are witnessing is not an economic recovery, in any sense of the words. We are seeing a return to profit for a cluster of corporations, at the expense of their workers, the tax payer and those reliant on social security.
The Coalition government follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
Employment? Not As You Know It
The UK Govt was today cheerleading the latest jobs figures which appear to show a mere 0.1% drop in unemployment rate in the last quarter. But the government simply ignored the bad news in the figures.
The number of men working full time fell by 272,000 and those in part time work rose 281,000. This is the highest number of people in part time work since records began in 1992. A third of those men in part time work stated they held those positions because they could not find full time work.
Unemployment among 16-24 year olds was up 34,000. This means the UK has an unemployment rate of 21% among young people, with 960,000 now jobless.
And the picture was no rosier for those who had managed to gain employment. While unemployment may well remain lower than equivalent austerity nations, the nature of employment is shifting in a worrying direction.
Wages have fallen for 36 of the 37 months of the Coalition government. This makes Cameron’s Coalition the the worst performing government in UK history on wages. No former Prime Minister in the history of our parliamentary democracy has seen wages drop for this length of time – not Thatcher, not Harold Wilson, not Ted Heath.
cont'd...
www.scriptonitedaily.com/2013/09/11/britain-is-booming-if-youre-going-to-tell-a-lie-make-it-a-big-one/
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
News
Britain is Booming! If You’re Going to Tell a Lie, Make it a Big One
14 replies
ttosca · 11/09/2013 22:19
OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes ·
12/09/2013 07:02
If you're going to misrepresent what someone says ttossa, better make it a whopper.... 
'Turning a corner' is not the same as 'Britain booming'
cumfy ·
17/09/2013 00:45
More or less Radio 4 had a really interesting piece on how the GDP corrector has been increasing faster than GDP itself.
So the real adjusted GDP has in fact been falling.
And a GDP "expert" saying that no one really knows what real GDP is.
Oh the fun.
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.