Britains Trillion Pound Horror - Channel 4

[d000hg]

£4.3 Trillion is the UK national debt.
Over 50% of the economy is Public so contributes nothing to economic activity.
High taxation squashes economic activity and growth.
Benefits payout exceed the total Income Tax take.
Benefits model is entirely wrong.

Britain has been described as having an economy that's "Clinically Obese".

Well worth watching.

Of course, they're 100% objective, not just wanting to get good viewing figures.

****!

WE ARE ALL ******!!!!

You just hear anything in newspapers and TV and immediately believe it as fact. Next you'll be warning us about cloned dinosaurs

[fullyautomatix]

Trust me you don't want to see it - better stay ignorant ...

WHS

Just shut your eyes and hope that it was all just a nightmare and tomorrow will bring a new dawn to this country and we will be a manufacturing powerhouse.

[NotAllThere]

Both topics posted at 22:17

Merged.

[NotAllThere]

****!

YOU ARE ALL ******!!!!

FTFY (from the safety of another country)

[Sysman]

For most of my adult life I've watched the decline of UK manufacturing and thought it's just wrong. Like a chair, if you cut the legs of the economy, you can't expect growth.

Makes me angry beyond belief.

It makes me extremely angry too. Last night I watched "The Secret Life of the National Grid", where they detailed some of the shortcomings of the nuclear energy programme. Added to other programmes earlier this year about planes, Calder Hall and space rockets, an awful lot of money was simply p*ssed away by trying to be world leaders, running out of money and buying from the Yanks anyway.

[Ignis Fatuus]

Can't watch the programme but I gather it's a shock-horror story about Britain's national debt, with a political axe to grind and without any hint of alternative views or comparison with other countries for the sake of perspective?

Anyway, a few seconds' browsing puts us in our place:

Countries with greatest external debt per capita:
Ireland
Switzerland
UK
Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
Austria
Denmark
Hong Kong
Sweden
France
Germany
USA
...


Lowest external debt per capita:
West Bank
Gaza
East Timor
Ethiopia
Uganda
Malawi
Eritrea
Burkina Faso
...

So is it a contention that we must cut our debt at any cost?

[AlfredJPruffock]

My Goodness Me - and there was I a bit worried that for the first time in my life, due to extravagence on my behalf I found myself with credit card bills of 1400 pounds - puts in all in perspective I guess.

No matter my card debts are fully repaid at the end of this month - so no interest to pay there - and the Pruffock Mansion has long been paid off.


Regarding the UK Debt - exactly whom is demanding the debt repayment ?

[doodab]

Like a chair, if you cut the legs of the economy, you can't expect growth.

I wouldn't expect a chair to grow even if it had legs.

[GreenLabel]

Can't watch the programme but I gather it's a shock-horror story about Britain's national debt, with a political axe to grind and without any hint of alternative views or comparison with other countries for the sake of perspective?

Anyway, a few seconds' browsing puts us in our place:

Countries with greatest external debt per capita:
Ireland
Switzerland
UK
Netherlands
Belgium
Norway
Austria
Denmark
Hong Kong
Sweden
France
Germany
USA
...


Lowest external debt per capita:
West Bank
Gaza
East Timor
Ethiopia
Uganda
Malawi
Eritrea
Burkina Faso
...

So is it a contention that we must cut our debt at any cost?

It's gotta be paid back at some point. If we don't start now, when will we? The longer it goes on like this, the more money wasted on paying interest.

[Ignis Fatuus]

£4.3 Trillion is the UK national debt.
Yes. It's about par with other very successful advanced economies.

Over 50% of the economy is Public so contributes nothing to economic activity.
The Public Sector is not there primarily to contribute to the economy (although it does), it is there to use the economy to secure the ends that we see as desirable.

High taxation squashes economic activity and growth.
Wild assertion unsupported by evidence.

Benefits payout exceed the total Income Tax take.
Do you mean that it ought not to? Are you imagining some sort of direct relationship between the two? That would be very simplistic.

Benefits model is entirely wrong.
Please elaborate. By itself this is short of meaning.

Britain has been described as having an economy that's "Clinically Obese".
Britain has been described as many things including the most dynamic economy in Europe. "has been described" is not much of an argument.

Well worth watching.
With a foam brick to hand, I should imagine.

Just my tuppenceworth.