Labour Party attacks George Osborne
Despite the fact that the Labour Party is for many the reason why the UK economy is in such a dire state and why local government finances and national government finances have been stretched to the limit, the Party has launched a ferocious attack on George Osborne. Ed Balls is the latest of the Labour leadership contenders to step into the fray with a suggestion that the Conservative party is building up the crisis to allow long-term cost-cutting plans to be introduced under a cloud of taxpayer panic.
While there's no doubt that the credit crunch and the worldwide recession did have an impact upon UK government finances when the Labour Party was in power, there is also no doubt that Gordon Brown in particular appears to have been guilty of spending in the boom times and putting no savings away for the tough times. The truth is that over the last decade we have seen new taxes, both direct and indirect, introduced to the UK at a time when the economy was booming and nobody was complaining. However, now that the economy has turned downwards the weakness of the UK government's finances has been laid bare for all to see and it does not make good reading.
The crisis scenario built up by the Conservative party and the issues raised by the Labour Party are at completely opposite ends of the spectrum and the truth probably lies somewhere in between. However, the fact is that the UK economy is struggling, UK finances are in a mess, the UK budget deficit needs to be addressed and thankfully David Cameron is acting sooner rather than later. But will he succeed?
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