National Debt Soars To Level Of Last Tory Government.

All the evidence now available shows quite clearly that George Osborne's insane austerity drive is literally killing the country. Shrinking wages, cost-of-living rises, the theft and fencing of national assets to criminal corporate gangs, the blackmail of greedy bankers, tax evasion by the rich, greedy and selfish, the deliberate pauperisation of the vast majority and the persecution of the sick and disabled have delivered only mounting debt. In fact the national debt now stands at the highest level since 1989 - "coincidentally" the last time that the Tory party unleashed their primitive and barbaric ideology on the economy. The reason for this totally predictable outcome - predictable to everyone except the insane Tory party - is the reduction in demand that austerity brings. In the past reducing demand have been used to cool an overheating economy while no one in their right mind would do so to further cool an economy experiencing the equivalent of an ice age. This is not economics, it is madness and only a party driven collectively insane by their own greed, selfishness and idiotic ideology would even contemplate it. The economy needs a stimulus not a general anaesthetic, a shot in the arm not its life blood deliberately being drained away. The Tories are not only destroying the economy in an act of pure vandalism, they are demanding that ordinary hardworking people should not only bear the brunt but, as Esther McVey told us only a couple of days ago, should be prepared to starve to achieve the Tory wet dream of returning us to the 19th century.

Is Truth Finally Catching Up With The Finance Industry?

There are encouraging signs that, despite the Tory party's best efforts, the finance industry is gradually cleaning up its act after 30 years of running riot. George Osborne has told us that, in the wake of public disgust for loan shark companies such as Wonga, he will legislate to cap the eye-watering rates they charge to desperate poor people. Of course he hasn't even suggested what that cap will be since he fears that Wonga and other criminal organisations might cap their "donations" to the Tories in return. In fact Osborne's initiative has all the hallmarks of being window-dressing with lots of warm fuzzy words and very little in the way of actual cold prickly measures. Stand by for the Tory's favourite "voluntary code of conduct" confidence trick. It has also been revealed that RBS has been operating a scam that would make the Mafia blush. They have been in the habit of moving perfectly good viable businesses into remedial measures in order to bankrupt them, purchase their assets at knock down prices and then flog them off at a profit. Essentially they have been mugging small businesses in much the same way as they have been mugging the public for the last three decades of the neoliberal economic "experiment". Stand by for yet another raft of banking executives resigning and walking off with lottery-sized pay-offs as they weep all the way to their offshore banking accounts. Who says that crime doesn't pay?

Tory Corruption Rolls On.

The Tories are beginning to scent defeat especially over Ed Miliband's pledge to freeze energy prices. So far there hasn't been a peep out of them on the issue. The reason? Because they can't match the policy and if, as the energy companies are threatening, energy prices are hugely inflated in anticipation of a Labour victory in 2015 what can Cameron do about it? Nothing, he wouldn't dare. And there's the rub because if his wealthy mates in the energy sector do raise prices the question will be why don't you do something about it Dave? Heads Ed Miliband wins, tails David Cameron loses. Nothing loath, however, Tory corruption is still rolling on, grubbing as much money in bribes as they can before being turfed out of office. Osborne is busy challenging the EU's attempt to cap banker's bonuses in the European Court to protect his banking pals. BT has been handed £1.2 of taxpayers money despite having a virtual monopoly in the provision of broadband internet. As Margaret Hodge has succinctly put it; “The consumer is failing to get the benefits of healthy competition and BT will end up owning assets created from £1.2bn of public money.” Meanwhile the Tory "reform" of the NHS is now leading to ever more health rationing while the bloodsuckers who have muscled their way into Britain's healthcare system courtesy of the Tory party are offering a "self-funding" option that allows those with the money to jump the queue. And, if you want to know how the Tory party is directly benefitting from all this you just have to look at the scandal involving the City brokerage firm ICAP. They were run by an ex-Tory treasurer who "donated" millions to the Tories even as his company was fraudulently fixing international interest rates. Of course the Tories are refusing to hand back the millions they have received from this crook. And so the Tory money-making scheme of accepting bribes from criminals and laundering public money through the private sector rolls on. Makes you wonder why 32% of the electorate still support these spivs and conmen doesn't it? Maybe they are just plain stupid.

Lagarde Agrees With Osborne - Sort Of.

Christine Lagarde stood next to George Osborne and, according to the Tories at least, agreed with him. The truth is, as she herself openly admitted, she chose her words very carefully. She was at great pains to point out that, though the IMF broadly agreed with a deficit-cutting strategy, it only approved of the "policy mix" and not particular policies. She certainly did not think that increasing inequality and high unemployment was "a price worth paying" and archly pointed out that persuing such policies is counter-productive and, ultimately, dangerous. She then went on to say quite pointedly that if the British economy continued on its present course and remained in recession, then austerity measures would have to be relaxed. "Unfortunately the economic recovery in the UK has not yet taken hold and uncertainties abound," she said. "Growth is too slow and unemployment - including youth unemployment - is too high. Policies to bolster demand before low growth becomes entrenched are needed." Hardly a ringing endorsement of Osborne and his "austerity at all costs" strategy. Of course Tories only hear what they want to hear, but explaining the BBC's opinion that "Ms Lagarde gave a strong endorsement to the government's actions" is somewhat difficult to understand. Both the BBC and the Tories seized on one comment by Ms.Lagarde - "Sometimes you feel like you could look back and wonder 'what if?'. And when I think back myself to May 2010, when the UK deficit was at 11% and I try to imagine what the situation would be like today if no such fiscal consolidation programme had been decided... I shiver." Their take is that she was saying that if Labour had been in power then there would have been no austerity measures and Britain would have crashed and burned. Considering the praise that the IMF heaped on Gordon Brown for saving the banking system this seems a little odd. Of course she wasn't actually accusing Labour of being congenitally insane or that they would have done nothing - she was merely saying that if nothing had been done it would have been disastrous. The Tories are now running from studio to studio spreading the idiotic notion that a hypothetical Labour government would have hypothetically done nothing - despite the fact thay they have spent two years shouting that Labour's policy is little different to their own. Its cake and eat it time in Toryworld.