We're Not Alone

While we are suffering mightily from the "Bush Years" here in the U.S. we aren't alone. Some of the statistics are in from the "Blair Years" and they are even worse than predicted. Not only are the Brits suffering from the credit crisis that Blair and Brown promoted through their buddies at City banks, but the socio-economic results are equally as bad.

The UK now has more personal debt than the U.S. and it is actually greater than the GDP where we, here in the U.S., are just a bit under the U.S. GDP when it comes to personal debt. You don't think it's mere chance and good luck that Tony Blair now works for JP Morgan do you? The millions he is bringing down are his and New Labour's reward for putting the City bankers in the cat seat.

Yesterday a new report was released that reinforces existing sentiment that the Blair years promoted inequality and were failures.

Ministers were last night putting a brave face on figures showing a widening gap between the richest and poorest families and a second successive 100,000 jump in the number of children living below the government's poverty threshold. They said extra money pledged to help the young and the elderly in this year's budget underlined the commitment to meet Tony Blair's 1999 pledge to eradicate child poverty by 2020 and halve it by 2010.

Britain's leading tax experts - the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) - said that despite the billions of pounds spent on tax credits, Labour had yet to meet its 2005 benchmark of reducing child poverty by a quarter and that the prime minister would have to divert money from middle-class tax cuts to have an even chance of hitting the 2010 target.

This little report on our friends across the pond is brought to you in the spirit of "misery loves company". Seriously, let us hope that the prospects of sane government returning to our shores next year spills over to our friends in the UK.