Britain’s years of austerity has at last paid dividend. Books are not only balanced but it is in surplus to the tune of £3:8 billion, on current account, day to day spending but excluding capital expenditure. Although surplus is just a drop in the ocean, considering huge overall debt the nation has accumulated, it is still great achievement, a milestone and a boost on the road to giving the nation a budget in surplus, first such surplus since 2001.
This is due to huge sacrifice on part of British people who suffered drop in living standard, unbelievable hardships on NHS, Social Services front and made sacrifice on all front. So the praise should not go to bumbling bureaucrats or patronizing politicians but to ordinary, decent, hard-working British people.
When Conservatives took reign in 2010, they inherited budget deficit of £100 billion with Britain’s financial reputation in tatters, forcing Chancellor Osborne to make deep and hurting cuts in public spending to restore fiscal competence and regain trust at international level to attract foreign investment.
In reality Britain needs budget surplus of £30 billion upward for decades to come, to reduce huge national debt approaching £2 trillion and put Britain on the road to recovery, prosperity and financial self-respect we mortgaged during Great Recession of the early 21st Century!
The question is would Chancellor Philip Hammond be able to resist pressure from every department, from NHS, Education, Environment to Defence for more spending as nation’s infrastructure is in ruins, students up in arms over tuition fees and morals of GPs and NHS employees at rock-bottom!
Most will agree that it is time to loosen the purse in “Chancellor’s Spring Budget”. But revenue should come from higher taxes at upper end and cut in Overseas Aid, not at the expense of going back into red, devaluing British people’s sacrifice.
Bhupendra M. Gandhi
By email
