Sobering article from Flip Chart Fairy Tales about the true size of the cuts (or tax increases) required to get rid of the fiscal deficit. The government claims we’re about four fifths of the way through the austerity process; everyone else who has crunched the numbers says we’re only about half way through. The article is based on work done by the Financial Times which concludes in a recent editorial:
“Fiscal credibility should mean setting out plans that are realistic and believable. None of the major parties has come close to setting out an answer to Britain’s fiscal dilemma. At the very least, they should come clean with voters about the nature of the questions that need answering.”
Last week, the FT ran a series of articles on public spending cuts. Its summary:
Half way through 9 years of planned austerity, the FT has uncovered that more than half of government cuts are still to come. And they will be twice as large as David Cameron’s £25bn figure.
I had a busy week so still haven’t finished reading all of it. If you have time, it’s well worth working through.
The FT’s main finding, after crunching the numbers on the government’s forecasts, is that a further £48bn of spending cuts will be needed in the next parliament if an absolute surplus is to be achieved by 2019. This is £10bn higher than the figures calculated by the IFS and the Resolution Foundation (see previous post). There are (as I read it) two reasons for this. Firstly, it includes the cuts for 2015-16. These budgets will already…
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