‘Is it working?’ this is the crucial question which will determine the fate of the Conservatives and to an extent the Liberal Democrats in the months ahead. People will want to see that the deficit is being reduced and that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Progress may not be as fast as we would all like to seen but there is no doubt that the Government’s economic policies are bearing fruit.
This week it has been confirmed the economy grew by 0.3% in the first quarter. There have been one and a quarter million more jobs created in the private sector. There will always be changes in job numbers and changes in businesses plans such as that recently announced by Antler are never welcome. businesses are not set in stone, job losses in one area nad new jobs in another are how the economy develops.
But the fact remains that slowly but surely the policies are working. The deficit is being cut. We are moving in the right direction. Of course political opponents will claim it is all going wrong and they could do a lot better but as there is not much evidence people think Labour would do any better after all it was Labour who left the economy in this mess in 2010.
David Nuttall 
Sir, I’m surprised and slightly disappointed. You missed the very positive fact that the country has NOT been into a triple dip recession moreover it managed to avoid a double dip. Despite the media convincing us poor souls of the opposite.
Ohh that word “defict”. In laymans terms the credit card that you took out in ‘our’ interest on every day of the week is a third smaller, great. Your opposition would like you to take another one out and add it on the top! Daft.
How’s about doing something – macro – micro.
Macro. – Stop faffing about with who marries who and sort out our (the poor souls who pay for their fuel) massively increasing energy costs ohh and the electricity shortfall that is just around the corner. Every day I wake up and look at one of these useless wind turbines 300 metres away. £5.0 million it cost (subsidised by our taxes) it hardly ever turns and then it’s bust and they come and maintain it. I could show you the simple maths that tells it will NEVER pay for itself – OK OK the green thing (C02). A suggestion, get on with the methane fracking – take a chunk of the money that the treasury will rake in from exploiting it – upset the frog/toads/bird lovers – slap a great big barrier with a road on top of it across the Mersey /Avon (or wherever) and get some REAL long term energy production as well as some real employment. If your stuck, delay the HS2 for a year or two to pay for it.
Micro – I know two real hard working entrepreneurs who have sweated and toiled (despite the banks useless inability to lend) and have set up a business over the last 2 years (two). They will be employing 5/6 people – how you fixed for getting them some promo? They may not want it that said – I’d need to ask. Let’s see – Cheers Charlie
There may indeed be some progress, but many vulnerable people have paid a disproportionate price.
David,
What would the deficit now be had Gidiot not killed growth, then running at 0.6/0.7% a quarter, with his emergency post election budget?
With such a large increase in private sector employment you would normally expect a return to health of government revenue and a reduction in welfare payments, but we have replaced 500,000 modestly well paid and secure public sector jobs, with 1.250,000 low wage precarious jobs.
There are green shoots, but they are not very vigorous and I don’t believe the additional pain from extending the winter has yielded returns beyond those that would have been seen had nature been left to take its course.
Ewan