Many may be feeling hung over after the pre-Yuletide party of dodgy accountancy, tax cuts for the wealthy and poor bashing that was the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. Thankfully the Office of National Statistics have come to the rescue with a healthy dose of reality to help us get our feet back on the ground in preparation for the Holiday season.
Many may be feeling hung over after the pre-Yuletide party of dodgy accountancy, tax cuts for the wealthy and poor bashing that was the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. Thankfully the Office of National Statistics have come to the rescue with a healthy dose of reality to help us get our feet back on the ground in preparation for the Holiday season.
The Tories, having gorged themselves on Ed Ball’s discomfort at the having to fend off the bizzare claim that public borrowing and the deficit are falling, may now have to face up to reality, as the Office of National Statistics says otherwise. The Office of National Statistics, of course, do not deploy the same dodgy accounting methods as Britain’s Chancellor.
Let us remind ourselves of the Chancellor’s claims:
Today’s figures show that… the deficit is forecast to fall this year. And borrowing is forecast to fall in cash terms…There are those who have been saying that the deficit was going up this year.But any way you present them, that is not what the OBR forecasts show today. They say that the deficit is coming down.
This wilful holiday from reality was made to seem credible through some rather dodgy accounting on the part of George Osborne. As George Eaton explains:
[If one turns to] p. 12 of the Office for Budget Responsibility document … it becomes clear that Osborne has performed an accounting trick worthy of Enron. First, he added the expected £3.5bn receipts from the 4G mobile spectrum auction – even though it’s yet to take place. Second, he included the interest transferred to the Treasury from the Bank of England’s Quantitative Easing programme (worth £11.5bn), despite the Institute for Fiscal Studies warning him that it would call into doubt his credibility. Were it not for these two measures, borrowing would be £15bn higher than stated by Osborne.
With, it is sad to say, much less media fanfare than was given to the Chancellor’s misleading Statement earlier this month, the real figures have now been released:
- Public sector net borrowing was £17.5 billion in November 2012; this is £1.2 billion higher net borrowing than in November 2011, when net borrowing was £16.3 billion.
- Public sector current budget deficit was £15.8 billion in November 2012; this is a £1.0 billion higher deficit than in November 2011, when there was a deficit of £14.8 billion.
Source (my emphasis)
So there we have it Ladies and Gents – a pre Christmas economic reality check from the Office of National Statistics. The government are cutting benefits, squeezing the poor, privatising public services and cutting taxes for the rich – all in the name of fiscal responsibility. But the data show, this orgy of Tory inflicted pain and class warfare has led to a rising national deficit.
A cynic may well conclude that therefore the government’s agenda is driven by an ideological and dogmatic belief in free market fundamentalism coupled with a contempt for the working poor, rather than out of a sense of governing in the national interest and fiscal responsibility.