this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
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UK Politics

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General Discussion for politics in the UK.
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[–] johnefrancis@lemmy.ca 16 points 5 months ago (2 children)

it's right wing bullshit.

The UK is never limited in the amount of £ it can issue to cover govt deficits. Read a textbook. Issuers of currency do not borrow i that currecy. Debt and deficits have economic impacts, but there is no hard limit.

The only reason for austerity is that rich twats want austerity so they can continue their insatiable greed.

[–] frog@beehaw.org 9 points 5 months ago

Yep. Talk of "the nation's credit card" being "maxed out" has caused so much damage to the country.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think it those economic impacts that people want to avoid, though.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago

The consideration should be the cost of debt servicing relative to the size of the economy or the state budget, not some arbirtrary number auch as debt size as percent of GDP. As you say, what matters is the effect. If it's cheap to borrow money, and you're spending that money on something such as infrastructure investment with a positive ROI and a good multiplier effect, then it makes sense to borrow.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Weird. Did something happen that, y'know, screwed up the economy really good?

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You'd think someone might have mentioned it.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

True, true. Must be those rotten [marginalized group] then.

[–] iamnotme@beehaw.org 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t realise austerity had stopped tbh

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 4 points 5 months ago

It's still austerity in terms of services but now the Tories have been cutting taxes, which is obviously incompatible with reducing the deficit.

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Of course, when the ship is sinking we should reduce its weight by removing the bottom.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Or we listen to Keynes this time and simulate growth.

Cutting to growth funny enough doesn't work and there aren't really anymore cuts to make.

At the same time, there is certainly tax that could be raised. The country has a load of the world's rich and Amazon and co are not paying the tax they should be.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The country has a load of the world’s rich and Amazon and co are not paying the tax they should be.

Labour are promising to pay for things by closing the loopholes they're exploiting. Although, non-doms aside, there's not much detail about what they're planning to do, exactly, and how much they expect to raise.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 3 points 5 months ago

There is so much untaxed wealth yet we are broke.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Using proven solutions? Fact-based policymaking? Seems like crazy talk to me.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 1 points 5 months ago

Yer.... sigh

[–] Treczoks@feddit.uk 5 points 5 months ago

There is no reason not to tax the rich to fill that hole.

[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

UK faces intelligence hole, as right wing think tanks. Deluge the public with research aimed to match there desired bias.

I really think it is time for a law. Requiing the media to make clear any bias in organisation, they use to try and shit blast their own properganda during elections.

As should politicians to be honest.

These distorted think tanks are nothing but harm to real research.

[–] DogPeePoo@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

Print print print— taxpayer bailout

Print print print— taxpayer bailout

Repeat ad nauseam ♾️

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 5 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Britain’s next government will need to fill a shortfall of up to £33bn in the public finances unless it is prepared to push through a fresh round of severe austerity measures, a thinktank has warned.

The Resolution Foundation said the debate between Labour and the Conservatives over the funding of specific pledges was “detached from reality”, with election promises based on cuts that would be hard to deliver.

The Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury’s tax and spending watchdog, has estimated that the government is on course to meet its debt-to-GDP target with just £9bn to spare, but the Resolution Foundation said the winning party in the general election would face the choice of raising taxes or cutting spending to meet its debt target.

In its annual health check on the UK economy last month, the International Monetary Fund warned of a £30bn post-election hole.

James Smith, the Resolution Foundation’s research director, said: “The state of the public finances has dominated the election campaign so far, with the inevitable arguments over how each spending pledge is funded.

But this narrow focus risks distracting the electorate from the bigger question of how each party would manage the uncertainties facing the public finances.


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