Become a Member
Life

UK's chink of light

May 6, 2010 10:32

By

Elissa Bayer

2 min read

Hopefully, the Greek situation will resolve itself soon as the Greeks need to understand that they are going to have to take their medicine and the Germans will have to accept that their pre-eminent position in Europe means that they have to come to the aid of their much weaker partners.

In the UK, one would hope that we get a more definite result than the polls were indicating. What we need here is clear direction and a robust approach to cost-cutting and bringing down the huge deficit that has built up over the past few years.

The deficit in the UK did not emerge as a result of the credit crisis, although the situation was exacerbated by the exuberance of the banks and the rush of both consumers and the government to spend money as if it was going out of fashion.

However, the Labour government under Gordon Brown's chancellorship managed to turn a surplus into a £40bn deficit, and that was before the credit crisis started. The necessity of taking the medicine is not going to be pleasant, but people are going to have to think about - depending on their situation - how good the last 10-15 years have been and how a different approach is now needed.