Britain is still Basically Bust.

All this talk of green shoots and growth is just so much smoke and mirrors from the Coalition to help them do well in the May Elections.

 We have not left the recession behind by a long way.

 Liquidity may have improved (it generally does when you give money away) but efficiency, exports, solvency have not improved.

 The rate of increase in national debt may have slowed but the Government Deficit is still going up.

 More people may be employed in the private sector but only because there are now 5 million so called self employed, of whom at least 2 million are earning less than the minimum wage for themselves because they can’t become employees.

 As for the tiny increase in GDP – GDP itself is now a misleading economic indicator when it comes to a way of measuring real national wealth.

 And as for Labour, their misguided policies will only make things worse. Nationalising the railways, price controls (no mention of wage controls – yet) and more borrowing for public sector projects is going backwards rather than forwards.

 They are right to say wages have risen slower than prices (except for those at the top of the Banking and Finance trees) and most people are now worse off than they were in 2008 but stronger Trade Unions and striking Tube Workers are not the answer.

 I don’t even want to mention UKIP – Unconsidered Knowingly Illogical Policies.

 Western Europe and the USA seem powerless in the face of events in Ukraine and the Middle East.

 We are fighting a losing battle for democracy across the globe because democracy, as we currently know it, is failing to deliver what people want.

 Inequality of wealth is getting greater. The prosperous middle is now squeezed. Among the mega rich there is a growing feeling they no longer need to obey the law as they are above such things and money can buy anything, while some of the very poor mistakenly believe they cannot afford to obey the law if they don’t want to starve.

 Politicians need to raise their game and come up with new ways of thinking about and dealing with excessive inequalities of wealth, opportunity and dignity.

 They should start by restricting credit and getting the current generation living within its means and not mortgaging the present by imposing ever bigger debt on our children and future generations.