Fitaloon at MicroShaft

This image should be displayed to all supporters of Labour to get just an idea of what you  have lumbered our country with after 13 years of profligacy.

The trouble with this picture is that

• It underestimates our debt. It is nearer one trillion, that’s an extra ten percent or 17 times the cuts announced yesterday
• It ignores the fact that the mountain will continue growing, like an active volcano, for at least the next 7-10 years as we try to get the budget deficit left by Labour under control. The mountain could be 50% larger in 5 years.
• It ignores all Gordon’s creative accounting and “off-book” deals such as PFI. How much they add is anybody’s guess, mine is about 10-15% or 100-150 billion.
• It ignores the rather large Public Pensions black hole.

So whilst you regard the image,   just remember that this is just the current peak of the Volcano. It will grow, and depending upon how things go it will either gradually wear away as we get the debt and deficit under control  or it will explode and we will really suffer for Labour and Brown’s 13 years of Profligacy.

Better a wee bit of Austerity now, than complete collapse.

Labour Debt Mountain

indie25may.png (PNG Image, 718×824 pixels).

The BBC reports on the state of Inflation.

UK inflation accelerated again in April to hit its highest rate in 17 months, official figures show.

On the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure, inflation hit 3.7% – well above the target of 2% and the highest rate since November 2008.

On the Retail Price Index (RPI) measure, inflation was up to 5.3% from 4.4% recorded last month.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said food prices in particular had seen sharp rises.

Disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud last month helped push food prices up by 2.6%, the ONS said.

Higher duty on alcohol and cigarettes introduced in April’s Budget added to inflation, it added, and clothes prices also rose.

But the statistics agency said the impact of fuel price rises on inflation had been limited.

I’m sure there will be plenty more to come.

BBC News – UK inflation hits 17-month high.

Every time I hear any news about Alex Salmond at the moment he is whinging about something.  It’s like listening to all three of my teenagers on a bad day.

It’s Alex’s belief that despite 80% of Scotland voting against him at the last General Election he somehow now is vastly superior to a Government backed  by 36% of Scotland, not a majority but a good proportion, and more than the 33% he achieved at the Holyrood elections and allows him, for  now, to try and claim he represents the whole of Scotland.

Alex should well remember this when he tries to claim his moral superiority over Cameron and Danny Alexander when they meet him today.

Now he also might look to how the Holyrood government has managed to get by for the past 3 years, with a spirit of cooperation, from many of the parties to allow things like the budget to pass.

Alex is obviously sorely disappointed that his band of 6  MP’s at Westminster, rather than the hoped for 20, have failed to be involved in a “Rainbow” coalition  which  tried so hard to become part of but was rejected almost out-of-hand by the Labour Party, but he should cut the whinging and start to look at this positively.

Scotland has come to the recession late and is now coming out of recession later then most of the rest of the UK, this will need to be noted. The unemployment rate in Scotland has now risen higher than the national average and with the Financial Area still struggling to some extent Scotland can claim it needs some extra support but listening and watching  Salmond at the moment is like watching an Ostrich with its head in the sand.

Salmond has got to come to the realisation, that the whole of the UK is in an utter mess and that the strings have got to be tightened on the previously bottomless Treasury purse. He has the right to demand a good deal for Scotland but he cannot ignore what is going on any longer.

If Alex wants real respect fro Scotland then he has to equally have respect for the UK government to rule. Until he does this he may find that his whinging has no impact on the Liberal Conservative Coalition.

It’s time for Alex to stop whinging and get on  with life after his shocking General Election campaign and results. In many ways he is lucky that his party has not looked hard at what has happened and wondered if he is the right leader now.

BBC News – David Cameron in Scotland to meet SNP’s Alex Salmond.

This article in the Guardian is seriously worrying if it is backed up by the release of figures tomorrow.

Forget a double dip. Britain may not have emerged from recession in late 2009 after all. Government figures released this morning showed a dramatic 6% fall in business investment in the final three months of the year, which all other things being equal would shave 0.5 points off output. Given that the initial estimate of growth in quarter four 2009 was just 0.1% , that’s not good news.

The even worse news is that a catastrophic 24% drop in investment over the past year leaves the economy in an enfeebled state as it attempts to recover from the deepest and longest recession since the 1930s. This, remember, is a recovery that is supposed to based on a rebalancing of growth from consumption to investment and exports. Fat chance, on the basis of today’s report.

Keep reading at the link below.

UK may not have emerged from recession after all | Analysis: Larry Elliott | Business | guardian.co.uk.

This should be titled Labour desperate to make GDP somehow stay above zero. Clutching at straws comes to mind.

BBC News – UK car scrappage scheme extended for a month.