Poor old Alistair Darling gets battered!!

Without actually being there, it looked like British Chancellor Alistair Darling got battered yesterday by his counterpart on the opposition benches, George Osborne. Poor old Darling looked pretty glum when Osborne described him as a gambler. The VAT reduction to 15 pct represents an administrative headache to companies but is unlikely to get the consumer buying. If gas and electricity bills were exempted from VAT, it might not get the "Green" vote but it would make a major difference to low income groups.
The public borrowing figures are alarming and our gilts (government bonds) will have to have some attractions to bond investors, who will be able to choose from a wide pool of countries such as the U.S and Germany. One probable attraction is a relatively high interest rate to offset the currency depreciation.
One reason why the Great British Public got into such a debt mess is that its income was overtaxed. So that to keep an illusion of progress and to buy the good things in life people resorted to borrowing.
The Darling statement had the positive feature of being relatively candid. It paves the way for the forthcoming general election, which is likely to be in June 2009,
and will be fought on a social fairness agenda.
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