8th
How, I believe, England winning the World Cup could save us from Financial Meltdown
David Cameron sat down at his desk in Number 10 just over a month ago and could probably struggle to grasp how he had managed to become Prime Minister just as the country was going to have to face some of the worst cuts it has ever known.
The £6billion announced cuts by George (Gideon) Osbourne recently was a teaspoon in an ocean of what has to be done. Less than a teaspoon. The National Debt currently has an interest of £42billion. Six billion pays off less than 1/7 of the interest on the debt.
Whatever you may or may not say about David Cameron, in his shoes is not somewhere many people today would want to be. In his own words the coming cuts ‘will affect the lives of everyone in Britain’. He is introducing a Canadian-style X-Factor, where each Department has to go before a team of high-ranking ministers and explain why they believe that their department should receive the money that they do. This system worked in the mid-nineties in Canada, when the then government turned a debt of close to 12% of GDP into a surplus.
Canada however, had the neighbouring USA, which at the time was going through an economic boom under the eyes of Clinton and piggy-backed on it’s success. Our neighbours, the Eurozone, could not be said to have had the same luck recently. At least there’s the Italians to match Clinton’s sleaze levels..
When the cuts happen they will be fast, and they will be deep. There is no getting away from the fact that we have been living on borrowed money for far too long. As soon as confidence is lost in consumers (we British do like to worry) the markets will follow the trend. As soon as the markets attenuate, so does the chance of Britain keeping it’s coveted AAA standard.
However, there is a get out. The national high that comes from winning things on a global scale is almost unmatchable. The buzz that surrounded the Olympic winners lasted for months and mulled over the collapse of Northern Rock and the start of the crisis. If England win the World Cup this Summer, people are not going to care being put out on the street, as long as they get to see the game. The longer England stay in, the more likely that the country will survive whatever Gideon can throw at us.