The UK will no longer 'cook its books'

[Ed P]

From tomorrow, the Office for National Statistics will no longer cook the books, but report in terms closer to those used by most accountants. For example student debt will add £12Bn to Government debt, and shares in RBS will somehow be treated as an asset.

My guess is that all this will result in some major negative shifts to the National Balance Sheet, but for once none of this will be due to recent Government actions/inactions.

More here for those interested.

[The VFM Addict]

It all makes no sense to me.   The Debt part re student loans is the amount loaned to students which it is projected will never be re-paid by those students.

As far as I am concerned that’s no different in reality from having added the same figure to the Education budget because that is the effect of such is it not?   Education for which there would have been no charge.

Obviously the figure must spread over the number of years before a student debt is written off if one wants to calculate the additional ‘Education Budget’ per year.

I hardly see there has been any ‘cooking of the books’ as such because it was always out in the open.

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[Ed P]

I await the analysis from the financial pundits but I think the new method should result in a better handle on Government stay in business borrowing requirements (i.e. cash flow for the UK). It also appears to give a better separation between capital and revenue expenditures.

[Bob Williams]

Inserting a chuckle at this point. The really, really dumb neighbour who always comes up with the really, really dumb comments told me once that the way to settle the National Debt was to “Print the same amount of money as the total national Debt, and pay it off.” The 3 others listening to these pearls of wisdom were still looking at one another as Mr. Dumb walked away, a pleased smile on his face. One of the listeners was a retired chartered accountant and he was first to start laughing, which set us all off. It is sometimes a bit refreshing to know that such people exist.

I recall the wonderful Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan once describing National Debts. UK National debt as ” a billion, billion, zillion pounds.” US National debt was just a scream: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH” Irish ND was “Someone must know!”

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

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