So, it seems that British national indebtedness is a wee bit bigger than we thought that it was going to be.
Actually, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) it is almost £4,000,000,000,000: about four times higher than anyone has actually admitted.
The figures show that there is likely to be a massive "intergenerational transfer”. In short today’s generation will leave a huge burden for younger people and future generations.
The debt consists among other things of the cost of public sector and state pensions, and of payments promised to private contractors under Labour’s idiotic private finance initiatives where vast amounts of money have been wasted on buildings paid for by the public that the public can't even use.
If today’s taxpayers wanted to remove the higher bills facing their children and grandchildren, they would have to pay around 30% more in tax and that's not likely to happen.
The ONS itemised the public sector's main liabilities as:
* State Retirement Pension: £1.1trn to £1.4trn
* Public sector pensions: £770bn to £1.2trn
* Private Finance Initiative contracts: £200bn
* Contingent liabilities (eg bank deposit guarantees): £500bn
* Nuclear power plant decommissioning: £45bn
* Impact of financial sector interventions: £1trn to £1.5trn
The figures propose that a realistic estimate of the public sector’s liabilities might be around four trillion pounds
According to the ONS failure to cut back now or raise taxes will leave our children with an tax burden of £200,000 each just to pay for public services which we are currently using and, to be fair, have been used by past generations.
It appears that such things such as free university education; mortgage interest relief at the highest marginal rate of income tax; property inflation with transfer of wealth from the young to the old, and free long-term care for the elderly are no longer affordable. And of course the proceeds of privatizations and demutualization and distribution of reserves of building societies are things that will never happen again.
Huge increases in the state pension and state subsidized public service pensions liability has come about because of massive increases in the number of people eligible and of course longer retirements, even if the extra years are not always spent in good health or fitness.
Life, in short, is going to get a lot harder because the baby boomers and their parents had it soft. So it looks like we can get used to more of what Camerclegg is throwing our way.
My question is why did no one see this coming? Why did the Labour Government not know that this was round the corner, and the opposition can't escape blame. Is it not their job to be holding the government to account? And what of all the senior statesmen in the House of Lords? Nothing there either?
How badly we are served by our politicians.
Actually, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) it is almost £4,000,000,000,000: about four times higher than anyone has actually admitted.
The figures show that there is likely to be a massive "intergenerational transfer”. In short today’s generation will leave a huge burden for younger people and future generations.
The debt consists among other things of the cost of public sector and state pensions, and of payments promised to private contractors under Labour’s idiotic private finance initiatives where vast amounts of money have been wasted on buildings paid for by the public that the public can't even use.
If today’s taxpayers wanted to remove the higher bills facing their children and grandchildren, they would have to pay around 30% more in tax and that's not likely to happen.
The ONS itemised the public sector's main liabilities as:
* State Retirement Pension: £1.1trn to £1.4trn
* Public sector pensions: £770bn to £1.2trn
* Private Finance Initiative contracts: £200bn
* Contingent liabilities (eg bank deposit guarantees): £500bn
* Nuclear power plant decommissioning: £45bn
* Impact of financial sector interventions: £1trn to £1.5trn
The figures propose that a realistic estimate of the public sector’s liabilities might be around four trillion pounds
According to the ONS failure to cut back now or raise taxes will leave our children with an tax burden of £200,000 each just to pay for public services which we are currently using and, to be fair, have been used by past generations.
It appears that such things such as free university education; mortgage interest relief at the highest marginal rate of income tax; property inflation with transfer of wealth from the young to the old, and free long-term care for the elderly are no longer affordable. And of course the proceeds of privatizations and demutualization and distribution of reserves of building societies are things that will never happen again.
Huge increases in the state pension and state subsidized public service pensions liability has come about because of massive increases in the number of people eligible and of course longer retirements, even if the extra years are not always spent in good health or fitness.
Life, in short, is going to get a lot harder because the baby boomers and their parents had it soft. So it looks like we can get used to more of what Camerclegg is throwing our way.
My question is why did no one see this coming? Why did the Labour Government not know that this was round the corner, and the opposition can't escape blame. Is it not their job to be holding the government to account? And what of all the senior statesmen in the House of Lords? Nothing there either?
How badly we are served by our politicians.
