Deja Vu: Its 2002 all over again!

[kerrynorth]

Public spending rising away ahead at a 20%+ rate and no sooner than the election is over we are into public spending cuts* (*whack - sorry spending 'adjustments' as Biffo has just rather forcibly informed me). Where have the last 5 years gone as this sounds just like June 2002!

Yesterdays exchequer figures show spending rising at 23%, in order to being them in profile by year end they can grow at little more than 10% for the 2nd half of the year. When you factor in inflation, public sector pay increases etc.etc. which all have to be met this will mean that there will have to be a reduction in the level of public services provided compared to the 2nd of last year despite the population increases and increasing demand for public services.

We are seeing the first manifestation of this with Crumlin Childrens Hospital being told in a letter dated the day before the election to cut staff numbers by 159 by the end of the year. Believe me there is a lot more of this to come if Biffo is resolute, as I beleive he is, to keep within budget.

How come this was never as much as mentioned in the election?

[Sidewinder]

As the Chinese say, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"....

But sure we know all about the infantile level of economic discussion in this country. The assembled muppetry are still insisting ECB rate rises are "done and dusted", that house prices will "rise by 3-5% in 2007", that our exports are just fine, public spending isn't out of control, the balance of payments isn't in the red, having construction & related services making up a quarter of your economy is just dandy, 5% inflation is nothing to worry about, having absolutely no indigenous exporting companies worth talking about is no cause for concern whatsoever....

Depressing stuff.

[scamallbeag]

I didn't see this before!

The good news is that the the fiscal shenanigans of 2002 didn't completely ruin the country (after all, no money was invested in many of the projects promised).

I have to say, that lots of broken spending promises from 2002 were mentioned in CSW -- in local media, at least. It accounts for one strand of bitterness against Christy O'Sullivan, when he rejoined FF (the other strand, of course, was from within FF).

Cork airport also springs to mind.

Subtext: You can fool the rest of Ireland twice, shame on them, *hurray* for Cork.

[kerrynorth]

I didn't see this before!

The good news is that the the fiscal shenanigans of 2002 didn't completely ruin the country (after all, no money was invested in many of the projects promised).

The bad news this time though is that all the economic indicators are running against us this time unlike in 2002.

[scamallbeag]

I don't think 'bad' quite captures it, but yep.

[Fr. Hank Tree]

The bad news this time though is that all the economic indicators are running against us this time unlike in 2002.

The good news for the country is that now we have a much stronger opposition that will properly hold the government to account!

[scamallbeag]

The bad news this time though is that all the economic indicators are running against us this time unlike in 2002.

The good news for the country is that now we have a much stronger opposition that will properly hold the government to account!

Except on economic issues at election time.

[Fr. Hank Tree]

Except on economic issues at election time.

True. But now that their are more seats in the bag, things should be different for the time being anyway

In fact, the opposition sort of missed the boat. If they had called for this before the election, Bertie would have been forced to take a position on it. He could rule it in, neutralising any bad effect it would have on FG/Lab votes but depriving FF of the ability to criticise the government after the election in the case of ff losing. Or, he could have ruled it out, forcing a ginormous U-turn.

[scamallbeag]

Yes, the next election will also be different in that the opposition will be able to criticize the economy because FF won't be able to paint them as 'negative' in response (which is what would have happened if they had discussed economic downturn explicitly this time around).

As for getting Bertie to rule cuts in or out pre-election, you know he'd just have dodged the question ('The economy needs constant monitoring, of course, but we're looking towards positive investment... blah, blah, blah...). Not a reason to not try, but...