Should the Government have a plan B?

[Gromit]

Osborne's mission is to cut the deficit which is why we have austerity measures.

But it doesn't seem to be working...

// The Chancellor is under pressure to rescue the economy after the deficit grew by £600 million, rather than falling by £2.8 billion in July.
The public sector finances suffered from a dramatic 20 per cent fall in corporation tax from business and a five per cent rise in public spending, fuelled by higher benefit payments. //

http://www.telegraph....ise-in-borrowing.html

A sure sign that the cure is worse than the disease. Should they try something else?

[StarBeast]

well if they did you'd accuse them of U turning!

[emmie]

hold the phone, no Daily Mail link Gromit, must be that Wensleydale you keep on eating.

[pdq1]

Its been obvious since the coalition took over they have rubbished all Labour's past ideas and to admit they are wrong with the economy is like a fishbone in the gullet that needs removing.

It is galling when Osborne with his single tracked mind can't take advice from even those in his own party. If this carries on Britain will slip even further down the list of industrialised countries. The law of ever decreasing returns are with us for years and lets hope Cameron has some bottle in moving him to another job soon. If he fails to do this you can only assume those rich 'Eton' buggers are joined at the hip.

[vulcan]

Having a plan A would have been a good start.

[Kromovaracun]

There have been numerous critics of austerity measures - they are simply not effective economic strategies at the moment. For the economy to recover, it needs to grow. For it grow, more money needs to be spent - which for your average person just isn't a rational thing to do at the moment. Govts need to invest if they want the economy to grow.

It so happens that people like Osbourne have managed to convince everyone that debt in the UK is so utterly catastrophic that any public spending is utterly unthinkable. Debt at the moment is hardly desirable, but it isn't nearly as bad as austerity proponents say it is. Here is a graph depicting British govt debt over time:

http://krugman.blogs....british-debt-history/

While it's not ideal, it's certainly not anything like as catastrophic as the govt. is leading people to believe.