Do UKIP's policies add up?

eublues · 17-07-2008, 09:10 PM

25-30 billion is not a lot in an economy of about 1300 billion, particularly if starting to cut rampant waste across the economy (including the 15 billionish gross membership fee for the EU where what comes back from that is almost entirely mis-spending), and starting to take advantage of the new opportunities that would arise to an independent trading nation.

Tim Worstall · 18-07-2008, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony Butcher

It's a hard sell though - to increase Government borrowing, and massively increase Government spending at the same time.

I certainly wouldn't vote for it. In fact, people want economic stability, especially now. UKIP's plans might have been theoretically workable a couple of years ago, but no sane person would take such a massive gamble at a time like this

I think most economists would actually argue that a recession is exactly the right time to increase government borrowing. Keynes himself might be dead but his ideas aren't (totally).

Anthony Butcher · 18-07-2008, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim Worstall

I think most economists would actually argue that a recession is exactly the right time to increase government borrowing. Keynes himself might be dead but his ideas aren't (totally).

That might indeed be the case if the Government hadn't been borrowing secretly for many years via PFI schemes. We are already significantly breaching the 40% of GDP borrowing 'limit' in reality, and the Government is looking to borrow £40Bn per year for the next few years.

Would I trust UKIP's plans to massively increase borrowing? No thanks.

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17-07-2008, 09:10 PM	#21 (permalink)
eublues Uber Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 3,189	25-30 billion is not a lot in an economy of about 1300 billion, particularly if starting to cut rampant waste across the economy (including the 15 billionish gross membership fee for the EU where what comes back from that is almost entirely mis-spending), and starting to take advantage of the new opportunities that would arise to an independent trading nation.