Autumn Statement: permanent austerity, permanent decline

2012-12-15 · first published in Counterfire · 165 words

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Dishonest: Osborne will miss the only targets he set for himself – cutting the deficit and shrinking the national debt. He has been forced to extend the date by which he expects to do either, and could only claim that the deficit was falling this year by including the proceeds of the 4G mobile phone licence sale – which has yet to take place.

Incompetent: Osborne is attempting to cut most government departments' spending by another £3.5bn on top of the cuts he has already planned. He is doing this to fund £5bn of investment in roads and other infrastructure. But the government's own interest rate on its borrowing is close to zero. Osborne could fund the entire capital spend at exceptionally low cost. Instead he is imposing further spending cuts. There is simply no reasonable logic to this decision.