Is Britain booming thanks to Osborne? These images provide the answer

Last Updated: March 13, 2016By

So does this word: No.

George Osborne has been Chancellor of the Exchequer for nearly six years. On Wednesday he will deliver his eighth budget speech. What will it say?

141204osbornetestfailed

If you think that’s harsh, you haven’t been paying attention. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has, and this is his verdict:

160313recoverybuiltonsand

Let’s have a look at some of the details. The Tories have made a big issue of the national deficit, saying they intend to deliver a balanced budget by 2020, using a combination of budget cuts (80 per cent) and tax rises (20 per cent)…

Actually, they originally said they would balance the books by 2015, using these methods, but they have blown that deadline by a country mile. So what’s the current situation?

160313deficit

Osborne’s target for this year is a deficit of around £73.5 billion, but it looks as though he’s going to blow that, too.

What’s his answer? More of these:

160313cuts

We already know that the disability benefit PIP (Personal Independence Payment) will be raided, with £1.2 billion being taken away from 640,000 as eligibility criteria are tightened for no very good reason.

And Osborne is taking £30 per week from people receiving Employment and Support Allowance in the Work-Related Activity Group. At the time of writing, a petition stating that the measure is unjust and calling on Parliament to reverse it has gained more than 71,000 signatures in just four days.

Ah, but everyone has to pay their fair share, don’t they? Has Osborne divided his cuts equally among the UK’s population?

No:

160110cutstargeted

In that case, what will Osborne do with the money?

Well, you’d think he would use it to cut the deficit, but it seems he is planning to give people paying the highest rate of Income Tax a fat tax break instead.

Oh, and then there’s a fat pay rise for MPs to consider:

160313livewithinmeans-MPpayrise

So, when you cut it down to the bare essentials, it turns out that Osborne is a fan of “trickle down” economics. The theory is that, with the money concentrated at the top, it will “trickle down” to poorer people as the rich spend it. There’s just one problem:

160313trickledown

That’s right – “trickle down” economics is based on a fallacy:

160313trickledown2

So Osborne wants to inflict more cuts on the poorest people – not to cut the national deficit, as he has been saying, but to redistribute wealth from the poor who need the money to the rich who don’t.

He will inflict misery and destitution on the many in order to add a little extra to the bank accounts of the few. So, finally, let’s look at how he and prime minister David Cameron feel about that:

160313torylaughter

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19 Comments

  1. MarkG March 13, 2016 at 8:10 pm - Reply

    The best way to describe what the Tory’s have done to the country is to place a map of Britain down and put a big steaming turd on it. Throw up on it then let to stagnate. Then sell it cheap to the highest bidder.

  2. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) March 13, 2016 at 8:58 pm - Reply

    I have definitely been paying attention as well Mike! Just can’t wait for John McDonnell to show him how it really should be done.

    • John March 13, 2016 at 11:02 pm - Reply

      Yeah, but you know what’ll happen when McDonnell gets up to respond don’t you? He’ll he laughed at, jeered, shouted down etc etc. The tories will do anything to stop him from talking (those that aren’t already asleep that is). And then when it’s all over, it’ll all get forgotten about, and Gideon (once his tummy has recovered from laughing so much) will just press ahead in his fantasy land, and heap even more misery on whatever disabled people are still alive in this country.

  3. gfranklinpercival March 13, 2016 at 11:19 pm - Reply

    I see no alternative to putting them into re-education camps, many many thousands of them.

  4. Jean Casale March 13, 2016 at 11:40 pm - Reply

    Just running scared each place I go
    So afraid that they might show
    Yeah, running scared, what would they do
    If they found out I’d lied to you

    Just running scared, feeling low
    Running scared, you hate me so
    Just running scared, afraid to lose
    If you come back after hearing my news

    Then all at once, you are standing there
    So sure of yourself, your head in the air
    My head is aching, I am petrified
    You’ve found me out, I’m such a snide

    Osborne’s Lament

    apologies to Roy Orbison x

  5. Jane Jacques March 13, 2016 at 11:51 pm - Reply

    I see my disabled daughter worrying what will happen if she loses her PIP. This can only add to her worries, as with so many other disabled people. I dispair at what is happening for her and worry so much about her future. I also dispair what it will mean for others.

  6. Terry Davies March 14, 2016 at 7:48 am - Reply

    if Mcdonnel has a valid case Osborne will be bribing the electorate on wednesday.

  7. Barry March 14, 2016 at 9:34 am - Reply

    Apparently there is also a clause in the Universal Credit regulations which will mean anyone who is “Doing the right thing”, in tory eyes, and buying their own home, will have the value of that home used against them if they, through no fault of their own, become unemployed. The odds are they will lose that home and with an ever reducing pool of publicly owned housing could find themselves homeless, but never mind only hardworking people count, the sick disabled and elderly are no use to the big society of cameron and osbourne.

  8. mohandeer March 14, 2016 at 11:06 am - Reply

    This is a real problem. Nearly 20 million people can’t even manage to support themselves let alone an opposition party, this means that the Tories will eliminate the opposition by foul means. The number of impoverished will grow to enable the Tory base of donations to grow. Meanwhile the poorest will continue to fund the massive borrowing of the Tory government and their inability to repay the debt. – Simple, kill two birds with one stone. Except the killing is real, the discriminatory nature of Tory policy is literally killing people, most of whom would vote Labour. This might be serendipitous for the Conservatives but it is murderous. Those who won’t die continue their life of drudgery with no end in sight, what a way to live.

    • Mike Sivier March 14, 2016 at 9:17 pm - Reply

      You should read Kerry-Anne Mendoza’s book, Austerity.

  9. mohandeer March 14, 2016 at 4:51 pm - Reply

    660,000 more homeless children – does anyone give a s**t?
    https://speye.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/664000-more-uk-homeless-children-does-anyone-give-a-sht/
    Unconscionable.

  10. Daniel Margrain March 14, 2016 at 11:18 pm - Reply

    Brilliant analysis that cuts to the bone.

    • Terry Davies March 15, 2016 at 7:08 am - Reply

      Mcdonnel is direct and more honest than Osborne who is a liar at the best and completely untrustworthy.

  11. John Gaines March 15, 2016 at 10:59 am - Reply

    Lets start with bursting the Bubble that we are in a Tech BOOM, we cannot even manufacture a ruddy simple MOBILE phone that anybody would want to buy so, where are we going with this so-called Tech Bubble, up our own backsides I guess.

    • Mike Sivier March 15, 2016 at 11:20 am - Reply

      Are we supposed to be in a tech boom? I hadn’t noticed.

      • John Gaines March 16, 2016 at 9:22 am - Reply

        Tut, tut!, I guess you don’t reside in Hoxton, they Kill for a Square Ft in this former a**-hole of Londinium; Entrepreneurs (The modern version of Thatchers’ Estate Agents)and their victims must present a façade of pretence, to Gull ‘Investors’

        • Terry Davies March 16, 2016 at 10:11 am - Reply

          tech boom!! to believe this is to believe the moon has green cheese!!!!
          although the ‘ green cheese’ belief is more believable than anything Osborne will say about the reasons for public cuts in his budget speech later today.

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