Brown's Borrowing Binge

Borrowing Brown's binge knows no bounds, hitting a record high of an eye watering £20 billion last month. How much more will the struggling Supreme Leader borrow before being booted out of office?

UK public borrowing hit an all-time high of £20.3 billion for a single month in November, according to official figures. Voters are left numb by mind-boggling numbers.

All dutifully reported but tucked away in The Times and Telegraph. Dog bites man just isn't news.

The record £20.3 billion is more than was borrowed for the whole of 2002. The IMF reckons that's equivalent to the entire 2009 output of economies such as Costa Rica and Uruguay.

The gloomy figures also showed net debt reaching a record £844.5 billion in November. For the first time, public sector borrowing taking the UK’s net debt to 60 per cent of total economic output.

The borrowing figure, which is £4.9 billion higher than the same month last year, is the highest since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) began compiling records in 1993.

But something doesn't add up. As part of his pre-election pre-budget report, Dreadful Darling said that net debt currently stood at £798 billion, or 55.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

But the ONS data showed that at the end of November, debt stood at £844.5 billion, which is 60.2 per cent of economic output.

The Orange Party feels a headache coming on. Brown's borrowing binge drives home the true impact of a recession depression far deeper than was spun to play the politics of false hope and optimism.

Just how the government plans to halve the UK's monstrous deficit within a promised four years in its re-election dream world, is anyone's guess.

Ominously a third of this spending was accounted for by the bill for a decade of government failure. Social benefits such as Jobseeker's Allowance at £16.2 billion, is the highest for at least eight years.

Only last week the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned that the chancellor could have to find an extra £2,400 for every family to restore the public finances over the life of two parliaments.

Well thanks a lot New Labour. What a great legacy to leave future generations after a miserable twelve years in office.

The fag-end government is bankrupting the nations with a mixture of incompetence and smoke and mirrors accounting after Borrowing Brown cooked the books.

Feral economics have taken hold. A rudderless ship of state is sinking fast, left to the mercy of a political leadership that knows the game is up.

Unprecedented debt, the pound down the pan, pensions plummeting. Banks sailing off into the sunset with a wad of funny money. Gold sold off at rock-bottom prices and a dole queue longer than Borrowing Brown's arm.

And there's still at least three months to go before the general election.

How much more will Brown borrow and saddle the country with debt, just to dig himself out of the economic mess of his own making and screw things up for the incoming government?

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Borrowing Brown's Bottom Of League

Borrowing Brown and Dozy Darling have sunk to the bottom of the charts, with the worst government deficit in the developed world. Another day older and deeper in debt. A damning indictment of a decade of economic failure.

A picture can paint a thousand words but so too a table. The excellent Burning Our Money has dug out an eye-watering chart published by the OECD, showing an estimate of the fiscal deficit members will rack up this year (as a percentage of GDP).

Sure as eggs is eggs, the UK is bottom of the league when it comes to government debt.

The next time Brown's BBC or a deluded prime minister tries it on with the discredited spin that the country is just a helpless victim of a "global downturn", "best placed to weather the economic storm", refer all inquiries to the OECD.

As BOM points out: "The reality is that we are worse placed than anyone else - and that includes basket cases like Ireland and Iceland."

Why is Norway top of the charts? Probably something to do with squirrelling away spare cash for a rainy day in a sovereign wealth fund instead of selling off gold reserves for a pittance.

Eye-watering public debt and a dire economy disappearing down a black hole. The Deluded One is taking the country down the road to rack and ruin. As the Orange Party has wearily said before it's enough to bring tears to your eye - and make your blood boil.

Top picture: jkingone

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Who Will Rid Us Of This Turbulent Debt?

Eye-watering levels of national debt are revealed today as the country plunges further into the red, with the government's borrowing binge now soaring to a staggering £9 billion in February alone. 

But New Labour ministers are burying their heads in the sand, leaving new Tory Cameron to have a stab at what to do about it. 

The dire state of public finances is revealed in record figures for the month, bringing borrowing in the 11 months of the financial year so far to £75.2 billion, the highest since records began in 1993, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The worsening state of the economy was also driven down by government tax receipts, which plunged almost 10% over the month, compared to a year earlier, as the recession tightens its grip. 

The £75.2 billion figure has rocketed to more than three times the £23 billion recorded a year ago.

That borrowing blows out of the water useless chancellor Darling's forecast of £78 billion for the current financial year, with economists predicting the figure could reach £90 billion or higher. 

As the government's own official unemployment figures top the two million mark and continue the upwards spiral, a rise of £1 billion in social benefits takes that total to £12.1 billion.

The UK is now labouring under a debt burden of £717 billion, more than £100 billion above a year earlier, with questions asked whether political parties are hiding behind a conspiracy of silence.

The mind-boggling figures leave ministers in a quandary, refusing to come clean about the miserable mess they've created and what they now plan to do about it. Ministers simply talk the economy up and talk the debt-burden down. 

But Cameron and the Tories are still caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. With such an horrendous debt, the truth may be hard to stomach amid accusations of scaremongering and, with drastic action needed, prompting the question - if things are really so bad then exactly what  action is proposed when they eventually take power. 

New Labour ministers seem quite content to live in economic la-la-land, knowing full well they'll be out on their ears in a few months time. 

For both the Tories or New Labour the only solution will be the once political suicide note of higher taxes and spending cuts, now on the cards whoever wins the election.

The Orange Party believes honesty is the best policy, even for politicians. Voters are grown up and economically savvy enough to be able to take the truth on the chin rather than the spin. 

  

And Cameron, to his credit, is starting to warn of spending cuts, albeit still treading rather carefully. 

As the general election draws closer and the phoney war hots up, the new Cameron is more bold and upfront but he needs to do much more to explain how the public finances will be restored on his watch and where exactly the spending axe will fall.

Today the Cameron election battle cry was: "We’re all in this together ... That means we must solve Labour’s Debt Crisis together. We will reduce this deficit together. Paying down our debt must not mean pushing down the poor."

The state must now achieve "more for less" with spending, as he pledged greater scrutiny to boost efficiency, scrapping wasteful ID cards and an end to the culture of "quango fat cats".

Those views chime with voters and that's why New Labour doesn't stand a cat in hell's chance of any more years in power.

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