MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
PM Cameron anticipates further cuts in public spending to reduce the deficit
“You only have to switch on your television set and look at what is happening in the Euro zone”, said Cameron Britain will have to keep cutting public spending to reduce the budget deficit, Prime Minister David Cameron said, underlining the government's tough task of trying to shunt the economy out of recession and winning back waning public support.
An aide said the government was paving the way for the next phase of austerity rather than signalling bigger than planned cuts, but investors say longer or deeper cuts look likely after a return to recession cast doubt over Britain's deficit targets.
The 2015 election will be fought on the state of the economy and how best to get the deficit under control. The Conservative-led coalition government planned to all but erase the deficit by 2015 but has already been forced to add two more years of cuts.
Underlying borrowing between April and August was a fifth higher than last year, suggesting either bigger cuts or a further extension of austerity could be on the cards when the government updates its economic forecasts on December 5.
“It is a very challenging situation, you only have to switch on your television set and look at what is happening in the Euro zone. We have got many countries going into quite a deep recession, these are very difficult times,” Cameron said.
“We inherited a budget deficit at around 11%, it is down to 8%” he told the BBC. “The figures for this year, it is too early to say where they will end up.”
Official forecasts in March predicted a fall to below 6% this year, a target which now looks uncertain. Abandoning the austerity plan would prove politically disastrous for the Conservatives, who staked their 2010 election pitch on it.
“The economy is healing. But it's a longer and harder road that we have to travel down,” Finance minister George Osborne said in an interview with the Mail on Sunday. ”There will have to be further cuts”.
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Read all commentsPruning the welfare state is long overdue anyway. Time for the chavs to lose their cig, lager and Sky TV money.
Oct 08th, 2012 - 06:23 am 0”There will have to be further cuts”.
Oct 08th, 2012 - 07:12 am 0YOU BULLY CAME-MORON!!!!
Attack the weak and the defenceless!! hound the disabled and those single mums who want to stay at home and look after their children....
Leave those who can not work out on the street because you've taken away their benefits!!!
You ought to be ashamed of yourself, you and your little b*tch Nick Clegg.
For every single mother on benefits there is a DEAD-BEAT father not paying for their child. If they were paying the full amount to for raising their child they would not need anything but minimum benefits. I absolutely support having a benefit system to support the young, old, disabled, genuinely sick and short-term help for people falling on hard times. I happily pay taxes, 1/3 of which goes towards paying benefits to other people. But I do not support paying for benefits used as an alternative way of life.
Oct 08th, 2012 - 08:41 am 0If a mother wants to stay at home to look after their child they need to plan financially. We have some of the most generous maternity leave and benefits in the world. If people working hard and paying into the system have to think carefully about being able to raise another child, why should that not apply to people not working and paying into the system?
Raising the next generation is one of the most important responsibilities and it should not be taken lightly.
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