Bad Ideas and Hopeless Dreams

Is this the nightmare moment when we will be able to look back later and say that this was when Cameron and Osborne finally decided to follow Keynes completely? All we hear are about taxpayer backed initiatives such as the first time buyer support scheme, the credit easing idea and the rail building and other government capital projects. What is going on in the world and in particular in the eurozone is threatening our recovery so we should be cutting back on all government expenditure and indeed our borrowing instead of doing the reverse. In that way we will be in better shape to withstand the ravages of the economic turmoil that are going to hit us when the euro collapses. Better to have done something to try and fix the roof before the hurricane hits than in the middle of it. What is it about governments that makes them live in cloud cuckoo land? It is all very well saying that times are tricky (and one must commend Cameron for that) but it is gutless then to pursue policies which our government must know are almost certainly going to cost the taxpayer significantly more than the taxpayer is already responsible for. It is not up to Tory governments to gamble with our taxes. That is something we can rely on Labour doing and losing every time they get elected to office. As far as what can be cut it is quite obvious that the  wind farm policy is a candidate for a start and a good second would be a cull of the civil service. Of course withdrawing from the EU would save us time and money and reduce the regulatory burden on us all. The growth we need will not occur as a result of taxpayer funded projects which just make the taxpayer poorer. Growth will come though by the government allowing the private sector the greatest possible latitude to do what it does best and that means lowering taxes and abolishing regulation to ensure that profits can be made that are commensurate to the risk. Private capital in Victorian times built the railways on that basis so why can't private capital build Boris Johnson's airport in the Thames? The think tank Reform says we are in for 10 years of austerity but the government should be doing all it can to encourage the private sector to take wing and thus perhaps reduce that timescale. The rumours about Osborne's Autumn Statement are not hopeful although I live to be pleasantly surprised.