UK: debt and taxes

Here is a link to a paper by the Institute of Economic Affairs. It is only seven pages and worth reading if you have the time but let me give you this extract:

'If the tax burden were to remain constant in real terms, it would rise to £563bn (see
above) by 2014/15. Spending would have to fall by £185bn by 2014/15 (£167 bn in
today’s money) to balance the budget. This would lead to a real terms cut of 26% of
current spending (4.7% per annum) to be delivered over five years and I would
suggest this as the minimum necessary.'

What the IEA is saying is that there are massive tax rises in the offing which (naturally) the party leaders don't want to talk about. The tax burden is already too heavy. To keep taxes the same as now we would have to cut spending over the next five years by £167bn in today's money.

Just to remind you, the party leaders have identified only £12bn, and they are arguing tooth and nail about the meanness of the other. That's less than one twelfth of what needs to be done. The reason they are arguing is that they don't want you to find this out. It is like the two countries pretending to be at war in Orwell's 1984.