The Financial Times’ Westminster Blog reviewed the Centre for Policy Studies’ ‘Be Bold For Cuts’ event at the Conservative Party Conference 2011 in Manchester.
“Terry Smith, chief executive of Tullett Prebon, was among those making the case this evening for bigger, deeper cuts at a fringe event. The businessman called for a Plan B: not the “Keynesian stance of Ed Balls” but something else: “Deeper cuts, or, real cuts, we haven’t really had any cuts so far.”
Clearly this would not be music to the ears of the left; but then Smith estimates that Britain’s real debt (including pension liabilities, PFI commitments, bank guarantees etc) is about £3.6 trillion – or £60,000 per capita.
He warned that the biggest areas of public employment – public sector, housing and finance – were unlikely to experience growth in the near future. Cuts were inevitable: “It’s only a question of when the markets will impose them.””
To continue reading the full article, visit the FT site: http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2011/10/the-right-make-the-sense-for-bigger-deeper-cuts/#axzz1ZzIPPGou
Date Added: Tuesday 11th October 2011
