Disturbing vision of the future

As regular readers of the blog will know, in September I quit the Labour party and joined the Lib Dems. I thought I'd better find out a bit more about the party, so I took myself up to Birmingham to the Party conference. I've never been to any party conference before, so it was a new experience. Now I'm not going to bore you silly with my musings on the experience, but I will tell you something rather important. On Saturday, I suddenly had a terrible vision of the future. Since then I've been filled with a real sense of dread. Why, you may ask? Well I was sitting in the conference hall listening to Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable. As I listened to his analysis of what needed doing, I was suddenly struck by the horrors. I hadn't really given much thought to the economic situation in the country. Sure, I know there are problems, but this was the very first time I'd heard them spelled out in detail in terms I understood.

Now everyone knows that Cable is probably the only politician who's had a good credit crunch, but having listened to his speech, I understood why. Due to the timing of the election, the two main parties and their lackies in the press are selling us a big porkie. Unless you've sat and listened to a speech such as Vince Cables, you probably don't realise. You know how in cartoons, dogs run off the edge of a cliff and don't realise. Their legs keep going, then they stop, look around and drop like a stone. With regards to the economy, the British public are like the doggie with the legs still running, but with fresh air below us.

Whoever gets in, I suspect that shortly after the election, we'll get an emergency "austerity" budget. The big question is who will be setting it. The odds are on George Osborne. Sadly Mr Osborne has shown no evidence whatsoever that he actually has what it takes to do the job. Every time he's been asked to make a judgement call, he's got it wrong. As to Alisdair Darling? It is fair to say that he's not done a terrible job  with a very poor hand. The trouble is that he's weak and is likely to be replaced if he pushes for sensible measures, not to Gordon Browns liking. As Brown got us into the mess with his management of the economy, can we have any real confidence that the reforms necessary to fix the economy will be made? I doubt it. The only person who anyone really thinks knows what needs to be done, the only person who has called it right all the way down the line is Vince Cable.Whether you are a Tory, Labour or a Monster raving looney, if you've followed what's happened in the credit crunch, if you are honest, you will know that Vince Cable is the guy who's called it right. My disturbing vision of the future? Osborne or Darling announcing their austerity budget on May 7th (or shortly thereafter), whilst Vince Cable gives a withering analysis of why it's going to sink the economy.  I doubt anything I write in this blog will change this awful fact.