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Labour's gross mismanagement of the economy was laid bare today after it was revealed a former minister left his successor a note that said 'there was no money left'. In a stark message left in a Treasury desk, outgoing chief secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne wrote simply: 'I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left.'His astonishing admission came as George Osborne announced that he will deliver his first emergency Budget on June 22, exactly six weeks after the new coalition Government took office. Mr Osborne said that he would also be setting out next week details of the ?6 billion of spending cuts to be made this year as latest figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated for the Guardian suggested public debt could double from ?890bn to ?1,790bn.Mr Byrne's pithy summary of the serious challenges facing the new power-sharing administration was revealed by Liberal Democrat David Laws, who has taken on the role. Speaking at the Treasury today Mr Laws told reporters: 'When I arrived at my desk on the very first day as Chief Secretary, I found a letter from the previous chief secretary to give me some advice, I assumed, on how I conduct myself over the months ahead. 'Unfortunately, when I opened it, it was a one-sentence letter which simply said "Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left", which was honest but slightly less helpful advice than I had been expecting.' Treasury sources said the letter from Mr Byrne - dated April 6, the day Gordon Brown called the election - was: 'Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid there is no money. Kind regards - and good luck! Liam.'Mr Byrne, who was in charge of controlling spending under the Brown government, signed off: 'Kind regards and good luck! Liam.'Mr Byrne insisted the message was meant as a private joke: 'My letter was a joke, from one Chief Secretary to another,' he said.'I do hope David Laws' sense of humour wasn't another casualty of the coalition deal.'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8690312.stm
Talks about VAT being 20-25% over here. What's your opinion on this?With the impending cut backs the UK is going to be a tough place to live. The cost of living will rocket, food, petrol, clothing will all increase. Don't the UK Government appreciate that the majority of people are only just about keeping afloat and any more price increases may send them down.The debts have to be paid but I'm not sure increasing VAT is the answer here.
And now this!!http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/7805707/Gordon-Brown-accepts-a-pay-cut-for-David-Cameron.html
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 June 2010 12.14 BST David Cameron warned today that Britain's "whole way of life" will be disrupted for years by the most drastic public spending cuts in a generation as he said that unless such cuts were made annual interest payments on the UK's "staggering" debt would rise to around £70bn per year within five years.The prime minister made his most gloomy remarks since taking office as he declared that Britain's public finances were worse than expected and were forcing the coalition government to take "momentous decisions" in the "urgent task" of cutting the deficit.Interest payments on the deficit are currently £42bn a year.Cameron said the looming cuts would affect Britain's entire population as he laid out the importance of taking "the whole country with us" in dealing with the debt crisis.In a speech at the Open University in Milton Keynes, he said the figure of around £70bn was drawn from calculations of the last government."Let me explain what it means," Cameron said this morning. "Today we spend more on debt interest than we do on running schools in England. But £70bn means spending more on debt interest than we currently do on running schools in England plus climate change plus transport. Interest payments of £70bn mean that for every single pound you pay in tax, 10 pence would be spent on interest."
