Mike S

I've sent an email to NS asking for the blog by Danny.

"...One cause of current instability is the conflict inside Libya.
The whole House will praise the courage and professionalism of our armed forces, who are trying to bring that conflict to an end and save lives. And I can confirm that the additional cost of military operations will be met entirely from the Treasury reserve"

George Osborne, Budget 23rd March 2011.

Looks like St Vince is getting the excuses in first.

You can't start changing your tune, one year into a government.

There does seem to be a lack of understanding that it will take a long time to sort out our economy.

Our growth over the last decade was dependent on easily available credit. Now we can't go back to that level of easy credit we're going to have to change our economic model to a manufacturing and export one.

The problem is that takes a long time. Plus, it's the same thing that America and much of Europe is looking to do. And then we have China which is looking to move into hi-tech manufacturing but will have much lower wages than the Western world.

And then we have the added bonus of having a failing education system where half of school leavers don't get 5 A-C grades and the ones that do don't have the confidence of businesses and investors because of grade inflation, we're going to have trouble attracting investment when the money could be better invested in better educated countries.

Yep, it's going to be a long, hard slog. If we started working hard now to correct our weaknesses we might be able to begin to get our economy back on track in 10 years time.

Perhaps Vince knows the growth figures are going to be revised downwards this week so he's just getting in the excuses now for why Osbornomics is not working.

David Cameron wanted a conflict with Libya on a hypothetical basis because Gaddafi made threats. So now the United Kingdom is involved with a £3 Million Pound a day conflict when there is no money in the pot.If there is no money in the pot the United Kingdom will have to borrow the £3 Million a day cost for the Libyan conflict from somewhere else with interest on top. That is going to add/increase our deficit or make it differcult to lower.

On top of this David Camerons conflict in Libya has icreased the cost of oil worldwide.This means that the extra cost of oil is going to have a knock on effect that is going to increase the price of every thing that we buy.This will also mean that we will pay more tax because everything that we buy has tax added that the Government gets in the form of (VAT)which is Value Added Tax.Basically higher oil prices means higher prices and more tax on everything from fuel through to everything you buy.

So it is true to say that the United Kingdoms decision to get involved with a conflict in Libya for hypothetical reasons as cost us increases in tax due to higher prices.In fact this British Coalition has caused Worldwide inflation because world oil prices have gone up and that effects everyone.

Maybe Vince Cable should also point this out so that the British Public realise that Tax as gone up even more than they thought.Problem is these politicians dont like to tell us the truth and reality of what damage their decisions have really caused. We are all being conned and taken for a ride !

@Anton

Osborne said in the House that the public would not finance the action in Libya and Danny Alexander said on QT that the 'public will not fund the war in Libya'.

You are absolutely right, the deficit will increase and the public will pay for the war through more job cuts, taxes etc.

Osborne and Alexander are lying, it's all smoke and mirrors. The public is and will continue to pay for this conflict and we are then in a vicious circle, no money, no spending, no growth to the economy ad infinitum

Mike S

The Treasury. As did George Osborne.

The QT show was the one around the announcement of action in the House. I commented on here at the time, can't remember who's article beneath, but I quoted the same quote wondering when it exactly became a war and not just operating a no fly zone.

Osborne boldly predicted the conflict in Libya would cost tens of millions not hundreds of million.

We are into week 9 of operations, so 63 days times £3 million a day, equals £189 million.

If I remember correctly, Cameron & Co, told the British people, when the bombing start, the Gaddafi regime was crumbling within.

Personally it is ironic Cameron hosted the Crown Prince of Bahrain, this week. Bahrain is still operating under martial law, the centre of the protests, pearl square, was demolished and we have medical staff, who treated injured protesters, arrested.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Cameron's law.

If George Osborne claimed that a Reserve Fund was going to finance the £3 Million Pound a day No Fly Zone/Conflict why was that Reserve Fund not used to Pay Off or Lower the deficit when the Coalition was formed ?

Is this so called Reserve actually a loan from somewhere else with interest added because George Osborne and David Cameron both claimed that there was no money in the pot when they first came into office last year ! So where did this magical mystery Reserve Fund come from? it can only be a loan/money borrowed with interest to be added from somewhere else.

This Coalition is lying to all of us because they think that we are all idiots.

This Coalition is borrowing money to finance this conflict that will effect our deficit and we are also paying with higher fuel costs which has and will lead to higher prices for everything we buy which also means we pay more tax in VAT on everything that we buy or pay for.

We have all been well and truly conned by this Coalition because it is creating more financial hardship for every british citizen unless you are financially better of.

The Tories love to dish out Double Whammies and this is one massive one.The deceitful liars are inflicting misery far and wide.

Anton
Another thing that I wonder about is I'm sure reserve funds have really strict criteria around what they can be used for.

Am just reading through this now....
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/management_official_reserves.pdf

http://archive.treasury.gov.uk/docs/2000/eea4wd.html

Even if the money did come from a Reserve Fund such as the one mentioned by Lou is it legal to use it for overseas military operations such as the No Fly Zone/Conflict in Libya ? What are the rules and regulation regarding access and the use of Reserve Funds?

Surely the Reserve Fund should have been used to get the United Kingdoms finances in shape in order to build up another Reserve Fund for he next national crisis that falls uopn the united Kingdom.

I dont have time tonight but it will be interesting to look into the legalities of all this because something is not right but as always it is a legal maze that can be interpreted in many ways with endless loopholes.

What I do know is that we have all been lied to and conned,that is without doubt.

You`re quite right Vince the public don`t understand that the global financial crisis of 2008 represented the end of the road for the model of neoliberal finance capitalism Britain had been following for the previous 30 years ; a major reason why they don`t is the constant bombardment of nonsensical propaganda they have been subjected to from your government ; telling them everything was caused by excessive public spending by Labour; which you know perfectly well (even if George Osborne doesn`t ) is CRAP ...

"I was thinking Danny Blanchflower shoud do something on HM Treasury reserves and explain reserve tranches, what that percentage is in money, dealing with the whole host of questions Osborne's statement on using the reserves raises economically and what it portends in the future economically."

I think this is a great idea. I would be grateful for a full explanation of this.

Luddite is always capable of nasty surprises, the verbal variety.

I personally think Luddite needs to sober up before logging on, his heavy abuse of Diamond Ice, is taking it's toll.

I have been trying to get information on Government Reserve Funds and there appears to be next to no information.If I can get this information then it would be possible to try and find out the rules and regulations regarding the access and use of these Reserve Funds then one could look into the legalities but untill one can find out what these Reserve Funds are called/named that is as far as one can go.

I suspect that this Coalition has not dipped into a Reserve Fund and is using the money to fund this Libyan Conflict from here, there and everywhere.One will only know the truth once good information is gained about what these Reserve Funds are and where they come from,whether British money or money loaned from another country naming it a Reserve Fund! After all David Cameron and George Osborne claimed there was no money in the pot when they came into Government last year so you could safely assume that included no British Reserve Fund especially if such a fund was not accessed to Pay Off or Lower the British Deficit when it was claimed to be David Camerons Top Priority.

It is possible that George Osborne and David Cameron are cleverly cooking he books in order to finance this Libyan Conflict and in the process slaughtering the British Public financially because our Deficit will not be brought down like they promised but instead increase and take even longer to pay off.In addition to this our tax burden has silently increased by higher VAT !