Oh, dear, oh dear. It seems not a single day goes by without somebody calling on the government to cut the massive budget deficit. Many ranging from the Conservative opposition and the Taxpayers’ Alliance to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) have called for an honest assessment of how much public spending should be reduced.
The Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces yet another announcement on cuts, targeting the so-called top salaries of senior council officers, many of whom earn more than he does. The Chancellor Alistair Darling is currently thinking of raising value added tax (VAT) from the current 15 per cent to 20 per cent and introducing a windfall tax on city bankers’ bonuses in order to help make up for the fall in tax revenues.
But for all this macho talk, there seems to be very little honesty from either the politicians or the so-called experts about the massive budget crisis. Nobody wants to be putting forward real ideas over how to tackle the problem, particularly at a time of rising unemployment, which in turn could lead to widespread social unrest. Everybody from the media to the ordinary person in the street will say that life in the United Kingdom is about to get worse.
With a national general election due to take place next year, the negative talk will turn more people away from voting, because almost all of the political parties have simply decided to stop telling them what is achievable.