About face

The British chancellor, George Osborne, has realised that he's fucked things up royally, and needs to do an economic three point turn to stop Britain sliding even further into the cesspit he's been shoving the country into:

Speaking at the Welsh Conservatives' spring conference in Cardiff, he said: 'We cannot place all our bets on the City Of London. Wouldn't it be great if Britain made things again?

'What I want to see is a manufacturing revival.

'In the budget in less than three weeks' time, we will confront the forces of stagnation that stand in the way of success, bring down new barriers that stop Britain getting back on its feet.

'The Budget is going to be unashamedly pro-growth, pro-enterprise and pro-aspiration. It will look at the planning delays, the new regulations, the bureaucracy and the costs that hold business back and stop jobs being created.

'Not just in London, or the South East, but across Britain.' (1)

Fucking shite from Osbourne. Almost the first thing the coalition did was cut £2 BILLION of spending commitments, a lot of that aimed at precisely this sort of thing, including

• £80 million loan to Sheffield Forgemasters,
• £620 million for the Rollout of the Future Jobs Fund,
• £50 million for the Local Authority Business Growth Initiative,
• £30 million for a six month recruitment subsidies package. (2)

And don't even get me started on what the shitheads did with the Building Schools for the Future programme.

These were all measures aimed at increasing growth and employment, that exceed the crumbs Osborne is offering.

Of course, Osborne prefers to do it through tax cuts, which won't work but will a) make the sort of people who vote Conservative happy and b) reduce the tax take, justifying even more 'austerity.'

1 - "'Let's get Britain making things again': George Osborne plots manufacturing revival with recreation of 'enterprise zones' and £100m business tax cuts," unattributed article. Published in The Daily Mail, 5th of March, 2011. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363197/George-Osborne-revive-enterprise-zones-promote-investment-areas-potential-growth.html#ixzz1Fol1yBws)
2 - "Transport and health projects halted as Government backs down on £10bn commitments," by Andrew Porter. Published in the Telegraph, 17th of June, 2010. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7835519/Transport-and-health-projects-halted-as-Government-backs-down-on-10bn-commitments.html). The details of what exactly was being cut or suspended can be verified in the government press release, "Action to tackle poor value for money and unfunded spending commitments," released on the 17th of June, 2010, hyperlinked from this story.