Where Would We Be Now If Brown Had Won Last May?

No one has a clue because it didn't happen.

Labour would put up the highest band of tax, surely? 50% is hardly anything when you're earning megabucks. They'd have made a top band, above the 50%?
I read somewhere recently (wish I'd made a note of it) that the divergence between the highest and lowest earners now and the highest and lowest earners in the 1970s is a HUGE multiple- that is, the highest earners now earn, say, 30 times more than the lowest as compared to, say, 17 times more in the 1970s (I'll try and look up for the actual figures - they're shocking.)

No way would the UK have been downgraded - that was always a myth put about by tories.

Remember that these credit agencies are just bunches of rich ex bankers playing the bond markets for their own sake and they were rating sub prime mortgages as AAA right until the crash.

If Brown had won:

The NHS would be safe from the utter destruction it now faces.

Many people would be feeling the pain of major cuts in public services and would be losing their jobs - but not as many.

Banks and other big companies wouldn't be getting a corporation tax give away.

I am quite sure the bonus tax on bankers would have been kept.

Instead of the hugely regressive VAT increase we'd have the much fairer NI increase that the tories repealed.

The Lib dems would have a future.

Labour would be behind in the polls instead of current position of getting a 78 seat majority if their was an election tomorrow.

or insight?

on site, or in sight. The Daily Mail that is!

Jackstarb. Let's put it like this, I was young when I attended the LSE. Most of my time was spent in the 'Three Tuns Bar!' (all subsidised of course). I always knew was out of place. I was practically the only one who wore make-up!. Not a copy of the Daily Mail in site!

Plus most of my hols were spent in Ibiza at the time, which was not the normal hols for those at the LSE. Those were the days, before fees and 'one' could enjoy a good knees up in Spain.!

Also I was not as political, as I am now,otherwise I can assure you there would have been plenty of fights. arguments
debates!

Good Heavens - you don't all think the last Labour Government was a socialist government, do you? They were merely spendthrift Tories.

I went to LSE too. The lefty thing was before my time...

Socialists tend not to worry about paying bills, I find. Partly because they don't believe in balancing budgets but mostly because they believe they themselves shouldn't have to. Being members of the exploited working class and all. Leave paying the piper to the plutocrats, eh?

How could you forget the Golden Rule?

I agree with the consensus on this thread

We would have had another budget of overspending, followed by a budget of draconian cuts and tax increases, but a little too late so that our credit rating would have been downgraded and our interest payments increased massively.

So I think we would have been much deeper in the mire, with idiots at Nos 10&11.

Given a choice between smug bds and idiots, sometimes the smug bds are the lesser evil.

Complimentary - I'm still shocked that you went to LSE. Isn't it quite left wing? I bet you had lots of fights interesting debates.

Enjoying the same public-sector job cuts, but a little later and at the instigation of the IMF.
I really think we'd be more screwed, but people wouldn't have the satisfaction of being able to blame the Tories.

On the plus-side we'd see something less of Smirking Osborne.

bust

Claig. Precisely. If Chil1234, posts anymore of her Orwellian scenarios/predictions, half the posters will be heading for the hills!...

Chili, how can we ever trust Darling, a man whose, eyebrows, don't match his hair!

Knocking on the IMF's door

Oooh good question!

It depends on whether Darling remained as chancellor. It's possible he may have succeeded in holding off the bond market and delaying the cuts for 12 months. But by about now (or the March budget) he would have needed to address the deficit and would be announcing cuts.

If Darling had been replaced by Balls? - I'd say the IMF might be sniffing around by now.

(And - I'd be too busy researching property and schools in Zug to post on here .)

Durham You probably would have been in the same boat. Just a few months later.

MadamDeath, yes you are right. By 2014/15 we're expected to be paying about £74 billion per year on interest repayments alone. Thats just interest....not the actual debt.

The longer we delay getting our deficit/overspending under control, the worse that figure gets.

To put it into context we spend about £45 billion on defence. Thats army, navy & air force. And £63 billionish on education.

That's why its laughable the people who say there's no problem at all and we should keep doling out money to all & sundry.

Well on a purely selfish level my DH would not be in the process of being made redundant from Job Centre + along with 25% of the staff there. I wouldn't be being funded month on month by the council who cannot commit to 'long term' funding at present for the charity I work for (as a Benefits Advisor)

This country, as said would have gone the same way as Greece, Ireland.

Chil1234, are you trying to put the wind up the posters, by suggesting such a dreadful scenario!

You and I know, under nanny/police state labourism, I probably would not have been allowed to reply to your dreadful suggestion.