Who ya gonna call?
It is a sad fact of life that the way issues are debated almost guarantees that none of us are any the wiser at the end of the day. This holds true for life-and-death issues such as 'assisted suicide', which is so continually reported in the media, most notably through the recounting of the most harrowing personal experiences. It also holds true in respect of the slanging matches, much beloved of our politicians, when it comes to debating the nation's finances.
Cameron and Brown may engage in the usual mix of repartee and ritual humilation over the despatch box, but the exercise is far from an enlightening one. Is Labour engaging in 'spending cuts' by stealth? Will the Tories' selective spending cuts of 10% cut the mustard? (Clue: no). Judging from these exchanges, it requires a great deal of optimism to believe that clarity in relation to critical issues is going to improve after the next election.
Here are the facts that ought to be concerning to all of us engaged in the challenging, and continually shifting morass of our clients' financial planning, for the 12 months to May 2009:
- Income tax revenues - down 11%
- VAT revenues - down 18%
- Corporation tax revenues - down 27%
Now, contrast this if you will with a few changes in the opposite direction:
- cost of MPs salaries and expenses allowance - up 10.8%
- cost of running the Treasury - up 5%
- in order to ensure that nobody is unfairly relieved of their fair share of pain from the collapsing economy the Government Equalities Office is to spend nearly 10% more than last year
- the Revenue & Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) is increasing its budget by 10% this year
- pubic sector borrowing has blown through Gordon Brown's last budget projections as if they were made of gossamer. £28Bn in total? UK Plc required £19.9Bn in just one month!
It doesn't require an MBA to work out that it's our clients who will end up paying for financial mismanagement on this kind of scale. Who will help them understand the issues? Who will help them to devise effective strategies to compensate for Alistair Darling's future depredations? Who will protect them from the RCPO? Who are they "gonna call"?
It really ought to be us. | 