MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
‘Hour of reckoning’ speech for Cameron’s future at Tory conference
Warning from Cameron: “Britain may not be in the future what it has been in the past” Britain must cut its budget deficit and fix its economy or face long-term decline, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron will say on Wednesday, seeking to convince voters that his austerity plan is the only way forward.
Cameron's Conservatives, who lead a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, lag a revived Labour opposition in opinion polls and face criticism for steering Britain back into recession and failing to hit their deficit reduction targets.
Labour accuse the government of contributing to the recession by cutting spending too fast, but the coalition argues its dedication to austerity has kept borrowing costs low and saved Britain from the claws of the Europe's debt crisis.
Cameron will bring Britain's political conference season to a close with a personal speech to his party that aides say will give an honest assessment of the economic challenges ahead and draw clear dividing lines with Labour.
“Unless we act, unless we take difficult, painful decisions, unless we show determination and imagination, Britain may not be in the future what it has been in the past,” Cameron will tell the Conservatives in the central English city of Birmingham.
“Because the truth is this: we are in a global race today and that means an hour of reckoning for countries like ours. Sink or swim. Do or decline.”
Cameron will say Labour's call for a slower pace of deficit reduction would “hurt the economy”.
“The risk is that the people we borrow money from would start to question our ability and resolve to pay off our debts,” he will say, according to extracts of his speech released in advance by his office.
The IMF cut its growth forecasts for Britain on Monday and said the coalition may have to defer some cuts if the economy weakened further, casting a shadow over a conference that Cameron had hoped to use to rally his party.
Finance minister George Osborne has already been forced to water down his plans to all but erase a record budget deficit by the 2015 election because of a weak economy, stretching the period of austerity to seven years from five years.
Osborne is expected to either have to announce deeper cuts or further extend the timeline of spending cuts on Dec. 5 when he updates official economic and borrowing forecasts.
Credit ratings agencies have given triple-A rated Britain the benefit of the doubt so far, largely because the government has stuck with strong rhetoric on its determination to cut the deficit even if it has missed its austerity targets.
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Read all commentsI didn't like Mr. KaMorn to feel so lonely (look his face seems to be those of I have no friends in the world) and I feel to make a comment.
Oct 10th, 2012 - 10:30 am 0Well here we go again with another new troubling PIG in the block...
This is the preamble of an announced sovereign debt crisis Spanish, Greek, Italian style.
And if we don not cut and show determination to the market, they will think we are not able to pay our debt back.
The think is that the market already knows that Britain cannot pay its debt back and the cuts will never be sufficient and then will be more cuts, and more cuts, cuts over the cuts until reality hits back again and default will be unavoidable.
Then good men like Paul Singer from Elliott & Associates will buy the depressed gilts for pennies and will try to put and embargo in Ghana or F@ckland to get full debt payment back.
Let’s see guys again in the next round of cuts and austerity measures.
You astound us with your wealth of stupidity yet again. The fact that the UK is consistently rated at AAA standard means that the UK is perfectly able to repay it's doubts (the fact we have no ships taken by Ghana proves this fact). That's what the ratings mean: how likely an investment in the country is either able to pay back dividends or just be repaid at all. The country has a higher level of debt against it's GDP than some countries, but it has a low corruption rate, extensive banking system (admittedly with problems, but still powerful nonetheless) and a reasonable currency that is holding it's own and is still considered among the best to trade in, unlike many many others.
Oct 10th, 2012 - 10:46 am 0The UK is going through a bad period like nearly all other countries in the world, but admitting a problem is the first step to recovery, other nations would do well to follow suit.
That looks like a mindless exercise in wishful thinking by Danyburger. That confiscated Argentine ship is really hurting them isn't it. We want to laugh while they want to cry.
Oct 10th, 2012 - 10:48 am 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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