What the Conservatives offer: This was described on Facebook as the most awkward photo of the Tory conference – rightly. Not only is she obscuring this year’s slogan in an embarrassing way, but she is doing it with what appears to be a fascist salute.

More information on the lies being told at the Tory conference comes from Kitty S Jones. Vox Political had intended to run a detailed piece but Yr Obdt Srvt had to deal with a slight emergency (being a carer, these things do happen) and now we’ll just quote the salient points:

“The deficit reduction programme takes precedence over any of the other measures in this agreement” – stated in the Coalition Agreement. Of course the truth is that this whole process of prolonged austerity is NOT about deficit-cutting. It’s just the cover for Tory ideology. It is actually about shrinking the State and squeezing the public sector until it becomes marginal, then non-existent, in an entirely market-driven society. The bank crisis-generated deficit has been a gift to the Tories in enabling them to launch the scuttlebutt that public expenditure has to be massively cut back, which they would never have been able to get away with, without the deficit-reduction excuse in the first place.

I am still seeing the “inherited debt” LIES that the Tories are still telling, despite official rebuke from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) chief Robert Chote,  and this is same Tory-led government lost our triple A Moody and Fitch credit rating, and that borrowed more in 3 years than Labour did in 13. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the coalition had borrowed £430.072 billion in just 3 short years, whereas the last Labour government managed to borrow just £429.975 billion in 13 years, and unlike the Tories, Labour invested most of what they borrowed in public services.

The much bandied-about 2010 deficit of “over 11%” is false. This is the Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB – total borrowings) and not the actual budget deficit which was 7.7%. (See OBR Economic and Fiscal Outlook March 2012 page 19, table 1.2.)

In 1997 Labour inherited a deficit of 3.9% of GDP (not a balanced budget) and by 2008 it had fallen to 2.1% – a reduction of a near 50% – now that’s impressive. It is implausible and ludicrous to claim there was overspending.

In cash terms a millionaire’s debt would be greater than that of most people. Therefore the UK would have a higher debt and deficit than most countries because we are the sixth largest economy. Therefore it is laughable to compare UK’s debt and deficit with Tuvalu’s where GDP/Income is £24 million whilst the UK’s income is £1.7 trillion.

In 1997, Labour inherited a debt of 42% of GDP. By the start of the global banking crises 2008 the debt had fallen to 35% –  almost a 22% reduction (page 6 ONS). Surprisingly, a debt of 42% was not seen as a major problem and yet at 35% the sky was falling….lordy me.

The deficit was then exacerbated by the global banking crises after 2008. (See HM Treasury archives). The IMF have also concluded the UK experienced an increase in the deficit as result of a large loss in output/GDP caused by the global banking crisis and not even as result of the bank bailouts, fiscal stimulus and bringing forward of capital spending. It’s basic economics: when output falls the deficit increases.

The large loss in output occurred because the UK, like the US, has the biggest financial centres and as this was a global banking crisis we suffered the most – not as a result of overspending prior to and after 2008, as the International Money Fund (IMF) concurs.

The UK national debt is the total amount of money the British government owes to the private sector and other purchasers of UK gilts. The national debt now stands at £1.5 TRILLION (and rising), so a further saving of £3 Billion in benefits, as proposed by Osborne, will clear the debt in, say, a mere 500 YEARS.

People in poverty are targeted by the cuts 5 times more than most citizens. Disabled people are targeted 9 times more than most citizens. People needing social care are targeted 19 times more than most citizens (From: A Fair Society? How the cuts target disabled people).

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