What the HELL is Gordon Brown playing at?

[Titanic]

On Newnight just now, they said that the UK National debt (currently approx £800,000,000,000) is presently growing at £500,000,000 a DAY !!!

What the HECK are they spending it on? and how the HELL are we going to pay it back?

 

[Silent Bob]

What the HECK are they spending it on?

Tungsten tipped screws and windscreen washer fluid?

 

[murraymints4brighton]

£500,000,000 a day? Imagine how many boxes of Mr Kipling apple pies we could have bought for that!!!

 

[Titanic]

£500,000,000 a day? Imagine how many boxes of Mr Kipling apple pies we could have bought for that!!!

At £1.30 a box, you could buy 384,615,384 boxes... an appleTASTIC 2,307,692,304 of those delicious little pies.... EVERY DAY!!!

 

[The Wizard]

At £1.30 a box, you could buy 384,615,384 boxes... an appleTASTIC 2,307,692,304 of those delicious little pies.... EVERY DAY!!!

 

[Garage_Doors]

Interest on the loan, probably.

 

[beorhthelm]

im surprised that Newsnight went with that number, which seems to have come from the Sun, which would be making mischief. im really not sure how the higher end trillions of debt numbers come from, i think they assume that in the event of all bank loans and and gurantees defaulting thats what we'd owe. its a liability not actually money spent.

 

[Titanic]

Interest on the loan, probably.

Blimey... has he borrowed if from Ocean Finance?

 

[The Wizard]

Blimey... has he borrowed if from Ocean Finance?

Yeah, Figures...

 

[Stoo82]

im surprised that Newsnight went with that number, which seems to have come from the Sun, which would be making mischief. im really not sure how the higher end trillions of debt numbers come from, i think they assume that in the event of all bank loans and and gurantees defaulting thats what we'd owe. its a liability not actually money spent.

This was in January.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/25/uk-recession

How much does Britain actually owe?

Official figures from last week showed that the government had run up total debts of £697.5bn, or 47.5% of GDP, by the end of 2008. That includes just over £100bn for the nationalisation of Northern Rock and the recapitalisation of Royal Bank of Scotland.

 

[Titanic]

im surprised that Newsnight went with that number, which seems to have come from the Sun, which would be making mischief. im really not sure how the higher end trillions of debt numbers come from, i think they assume that in the event of all bank loans and and gurantees defaulting thats what we'd owe. its a liability not actually money spent.

Actually, it was also published recently in the Grauniad...

"Britain's net debt shot up £800.8bn, today's figures showed – equivalent to 56.8% of gross domestic product, up from 43.5% a year ago."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/aug/20/public-finances-government-debt-july

 

[beorhthelm]

in Feburary, from the Times paints a similar picture, but read the bottom and the numbers start look alot smaller:

Government borrowing for the financial year to date now stands £67.2bn, compared with £23.1bn at the same time last year. ...
Economists said the ONS figures made Alistair Darling's projections for £118bn of borrowing in 2009/10 look unrealistic, with some forecasting about £150bn.

as i understand it, £100bn is on the balance sheet of RBS (for example) but its not really spent, its a loan. their toxic-debt is overstated as they've already written it off (hence why they need the balance sheet proping up), so as those debt turn into more valueable assets and/or other investments do better, the 100bn wont be needed. and in any case, when the inevitiable sell off comes, they will be in profit.

actually reading that guardian link, i wonder if thats the total country' debt including our mortgages, loans etc

 

[hopper_182]

At £1.30 a box, you could buy 384,615,384 boxes... an appleTASTIC 2,307,692,304 of those delicious little pies.... EVERY DAY!!!

I think they are on 2 for £2 at the moment in sainsburys...

 

[Titanic]

I think they are on 2 for £2 at the moment in sainsburys...

That's fantastic... that's an extraordinary 500,000,000 boxes... or 3,000,000,000 fruity pies a day... AWESOME!!!

 

[Paxton Dazo]

I think they are on 2 for £2 at the moment in sainsburys...

. Brilliant.

 

[skipper734]

WE cannot afford pies. The worldwide dept is £2000 for every man woman and child on the planet.

 

[vulture]

brown is a c unt make sure you vote for anyone but Liebour to get shot of them

 

[Guy Fawkes]

im surprised that Newsnight went with that number, which seems to have come from the Sun, which would be making mischief. im really not sure how the higher end trillions of debt numbers come from, i think they assume that in the event of all bank loans and and gurantees defaulting thats what we'd owe. its a liability not actually money spent.

The national debt started when the Government of the time borrowed from the Bank of England to pay for the Napoleonic war, ever since it has been a combination of continual borrowing and interest charges that have increased this over the intervening years.

Alot of the money raised through taxes each year goes towards paying some of the interest on this debt, which is why, despite a high tax income, we are unable to fund our services properly, or invest in the infrastructure we need to help compete globally.

Gordon Browns Government has borrowed it's way into further debt, which leads to higher interest payments on this in the future, and in turn less money from tax income to pay for services or even higher taxes, so their policy of trying to spend their way out of recession may have had a short term possitive effect, it's long term damage will be far greater, meaning either dramatic cuts in spending in all areas or even more tax increases, pushing more and more into relative poverty (especially the lower paid - the people Governments should be trying to help and protect imo) and may have only delayed the recessions bite rather than solved it.

When so many people borrowed beyond their means and helped to create the bad debt which contributed to the recession, so despite preaching about prudence etc.. the Government were doing the same. - so much for Labours promise of no more boom and bust too!

 

[adrian29uk]

Has a lot of this money not been used to the bail out the banks? They should have told the banks to FO. I don't know other businesses in the UK that got bailed out do you?

What's even more extraordinary is that while the banks where being bailed out with OUR money, the very people that caused the problems in the first place where still taking nice fat bonuses right underneath our noses.

 

[dougdeep]

brown is a c unt make sure you vote for anyone but Liebour to get shot of them

Kwite wight! Edgercation has gorn to poot!