Reactionary U.K. budget

June 22, 2010 2:45 p.m. Montréal time. George Osborne , the Tory coalition Chancellor has announced his first budget. It is a budget rooted in harsh anti-Keynesian dogma which despite its own projection of unemployment rising in Britain to 8.1 % and remaining above 8 % throughout 2011 and continuing to be elevated above 7.0 % throughout 2012 and 2013 and remaining above 6 % throughout 2014 and 2015 attempts to slash public spending, increase taxes and reduce benefits to the poor and to an extent even the disabled and the ill and to the broad middle classes,all in worshipping the fiscal conservative ideology of balancing books despite the circumstances. The size of the cuts is substantial and the size of the tax increases , particularly the rise in VAT tax to the suffocating rate of 20 % is onerous. Coupled with what look to be comparable austerity budgets forthcoming in Europe I would dramatically lower my projection of a robust recovery in the European economy. The budget shows that the Tory and Liberal democratic politicians have learned absolutely nothing from history and have condemned their fellow citizens to years of unnecessary misery and slow growth.