My take on what needs to be done to get us out of this mess:-
Firstly, leaving the EU is a complete no. The rest of the club aren't going to say, "Thanks for popping in, here's a free trade agreement to help you on your way." It would be like House of Fraser leaving Bluewater and setting up a kerb-side stall.
Secondly, huge savings need to be made, but how can this be achieved with least damage to the economy? Well, when most families need to economise the first thing to go is normally the annual holiday......"Sorry Darling, we can't afford Afganistan this year, we'll just have to stay at home."
Likewise, if a new car purchase was planned before the family fell on hard times it would almost certainly be postponed...."Sorry Darling, we can't afford the new Ford Trident this year after all.
If things get really tough for the family they may have to take the regretful decision to forego a car completely........."Sorry Darling, we can't afford to keep our old Ford Trident going any longer, it costs too much, we have no money to buy a replacement and we don't really need it anyway. It'll have to go."
Despite times being hard, you've just discovered your teenage children, Lloyd and Scot, have been running up huge debts they can't afford to pay and you have to pick up the tab. They each have a job, so do you say, "That's OK, the debts are written off now, you can keep every penny that you earn." Or do you say, "I've helped you, but you'll have to repay me with every spare penny from your income and if you do get a bonus I'm having the whole lot?"
But just supposing you were the boss at work and able to decide your own pay increases and set your own limit for expenses claims. You'd be well off, right? But wouldn't that set a bad example to all those beneath you to whom you are always preaching the need for austerity measures because the company finances are so dire. I think if I was an MP I'd settle for £30K per annum and no expenses. Many people that voted for me would have to manage on less than that and surely I would need to experience their problems in order to understand what's holding the economy back. A basic dormitory type hostel, with communial kitchen, showers and lounge, could be set up for myself and colleagues who don't live near London.
Without doubt, from my own recent experiences, there is a huge amount of duplication and inefficiency within certain government and local authority departments. I'm sure that there is scope for substantial savings here, without cutting front line services.
Finally (for now), virtually all of Gordon Brown's economic boom years were built on consumer spending - spending money we hadn't got. Years before the "Credit Crunch" I realized that the bubble would eventually burst, that the train would one day hit the buffers - I just didn't think of calling it the Credit Crunch. But it's here, those days of false wealth built on unsustainable credit are well and truely over.
So what's going to generate an economic recovery if it's not going to be consumer spending? We urgently need to look at establishing new industries that actually make something we can sell, preferably abroad as well as at home. In the meantime, unless we are prepared to accept economic stagnation, we do need to massage consumer spending. A little pay and pension increase fuelled inflation wouldn't be a bad thing. After all, controlled and manageable inflation would, over a period of time, actually shrink both national and personal debt in real terms. The increased wages and spending would generate higher tax revenues out of proportion to the actual new money entering the economy due to the multiplier effect.
Like consumer credit, this wouldn't be sustainable for ever but it would buy us time to get some real increased productivity in the economy. But whatever happens I think we will all have to adjust to being a little poorer than we used to be, although this can be mitigated for the most vunerable by careful wealth redistribution through a fairer and more imaginative tax structure.
Also, as a nation I think the time has come to accept that we are no longer a global power or major player in foreign affairs. We need to become a little more parochial and worry more about problems at home rather than what's happening abroad.
