Bravery Lacking

One issue that Ron Suskind raised at Chatham House on Tuesday was the inability of any politician to tell the economic truth as it is. The closest we have got to it in this country is Cameron's speech to the Tory Party Conference last week in which he said that it was sink or swim time as he warned the country about deepening austerity. He was confirming what Osborne had already said in his conference speech in which he pronounced that he would be looking for significant cuts in welfare spending. This is as far as our leaders dare go in admitting that we are truly living in tough times and that there is no alternative to cuts in government spending. It is a great shame that proper cuts weren't made when the Coalition came into power as we would have been over the hardest part by now instead of having it still to come. It seems that not only did the Government not appreciate the depth of damage done by the previous administration but was also scared that we would react badly to real cuts. If we were given the bad news straight we would have accepted the necessary medicine on the basis that taking it quickly in the right dose stops the situation getting worse and then having to take more medicine. If the purpose of their pussyfooting around was to try to keep as many people employed as possible then I would say they have succeeded well since the private sector has taken up the slack caused by the reduction in numbers of civil servants. More civil servants need to go and apart from other cuts we need to slash the amount we pay to the EU including to the CAP which is hugely to our disadvantage costing UK households in excess of £300 a year. The other item which desperately needs cutting is household energy bills which amount to something like £1,200 a year for which we have to thank that lump of lard Mr Ed Davey, a fine example of a LibDem although he's not a liberal and not a democrat. If he were a liberal he would believe in a free market in energy and if he were a democrat he would be prepared to listen to those who have a well researched but different take on climate change.