UK months away from joining Ghana and Mongolia begging for a bailout

OPINION

Being a big fan of Cum on Feel the Noize, I'm rather looking forward to the Slade revival and the full-on return of Glam Rock. The Sweet, Wizzard, Mud, T.Rex et al, brickies in tights to a man and back-ends-of-buses masquerading as pin-ups… the perfect exemplar of the 1970s which are so obviously back with a vengeance.

And, while we're about it, let's replace Greta Thunberg (as endearing to most people as headlice) with those lovable, cuddly proto-environmentalists The Wombles. Bring back iced-lollies with names like Dalek Death Ray and Count Dracula's Deadly Secret to be licked during scorchingly hot summers no preachy self-important teenager made you feel guilty about. (Possibly after scaling trees so high Health & Safety officials would be reaching for the smelling salts.)

Yes, I rather liked the 70s… and so it seems does this Labour Government, hell-bent as they are on bankrupting Britain and shamefully taking a begging bowl to the International Monetary Fund… just like Dennis Healy and Jim Callaghan did in 1976 after Union bullying and Labour’s disastrous fiscal incompetence led to economic collapse.

Tax and spend, pay off the unions.. ringing any bells Rachel?

I have flagged up this prospect many times in this column, but did I truly believe it would happen? Not really.

Do I believe it now? I'd put the mortgage on it.

But don’t take my word for it. Don't even take Nigel Farage or Kemi Badenoch’s word for it - attacking Rachel Reeves for fiscal incompetence comes with the job (and, let’s face it, it’s punching kittens.)

But maybe listen to out-going boss of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research Prof Jagjit Chadha, who is warning our economy is at real risk of collapse.

He called the UK's financial situation “as perilous as the period leading up to the IMF loan of 1976” and added: “I’m in a world in which I could imagine it [an IMF bailout] happening, and we’ll be bereft in that case.

“We will not be able to roll over debt, we will not be able to meet pensions payments, benefits will be hard to pay out.”

Got that, no pensions, no Universal Credit, no sick pay.

The full-on third world, tinpot state, financial basket case, joining such economic powerhouses as Ghana, Mongolia and Pakistan in the IMF’s bread queue.

The only upside of this theoretical intervention is that the non-partisan hard heads at the IMF will insist on taking Britain’s economic reins as a condition of the deal - which will mean massive cuts to public spending, ta-ta to bloated civil service departments, au revoir pointless DEI units, and close the door on the way out meaningless quangos.

Which all sounds great. But I use the word theoretical because there is a problem with an IMF bail out.

In 1976 when we last went cap in hand we were afforded 10 percent of the IMF's contingency fund.

This time we would need 50 percent.

Which means it's not going to happen.

There is no safety net.

Andrew Sentance, a former member of the Bank of England’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee, said: “Rachel Reeves is on course to deliver a Healey 1976-style crisis in late 2025 or 26. “Like Healey, she has massively boosted public spending, borrowing and taxes – fuelling both demand-pull and cost-push inflation. Unless policies are reversed, we are heading for an economic crash.”

Reeves’ and Starmers’ suicidal policies - a continued capitulaton to the hard left economic dunderheads who make up Labour’s backbenches - have turned the Tories’ “£22bn blackhole” into £50bn blackhole.

In a few weeks she will hike taxes again - either through the hilariously named “stealth taxes” or a plain old general income tax hike. And this will crush Britain’s anaemic growth and productivity even further.

We will be trapped in a doom loop which only ends with a begging letter to the IMF.

In 1976 Britain ‘s debt to GDP ratio now stood at 48%. It is now 96.3%, which means pretty much one pound in every tenner the Government spends goes on paying off the national credit card… currently running at £111.2 billion.

Get this though.

A real Treasury spokesman, at the real Treasury, really said this:

“This Government is taking the necessary decisions to stabilise Britain’s finances and kick-start economic growth, backed by a fiscal strategy that has been endorsed by the IMF.

“Our Plan for Change will put more money in the pockets of working people and our ironclad commitment to our robust fiscal rules has helped cut interest rates five times since the election.

“We’re also driving down government borrowing so that we can invest in better schools, hospitals and services for working families.”

And he seemed to really believe it.

He is the only person in Britain who does.