UK Politics: A New Kind of Crisis

Frank Field said something very important on the radio this morning. He said not a single MP standing for election in May 2015 has a clue how the twin problems of the structural deficit and the debt mountain are going to be dealt with, no matter who forms the new government. To this can be added the huge trade deficit and the acute housing shortage.

I can say with conviction that never before in my lifetime, which goes back to the premiership of Neville Chamberlain, has there been such a complete intellectual failure of the governing class. The Autumn Statement delivered with such confidence by Osborne is fast turning into another Tory omnishambles with serious questions be asked about the arithmetic which projects vast cuts in the size of the state to levels from the bad old days of the pre-war past. This will involve a major economic contraction which may not be balanced by growth in the private sector and if it is, it will be by  more low wage jobs in the real economy and high reward bonanzas in the financial sector.

This critical and  unacceptable imbalance where the element which produces nothing sucks all the resources out of the element which does, is producing not only social injustice and inequality not seen for generations, but is also unsustainable and will eventually lead to complete social and economic collapse. An ominous sign that such a dire prospect grows more real is the unexpected fall in tax receipts due to the erosion of the tax base.

The Tories are now badly rattled and blaming the BBC, Labour has spotted the problem but has yet to offer a convincing solution, the Lib Dems, with the exception of Vince Cable, have lost the plot, and UKIP are circling this embattled political wagon train, stoking up resentment and heaping the blame on immigrants and the EU.

Sooner or later somebody has to come up with a coherent plan or the term Big Bang will take on a whole new meaning.