Should The Governement Have Access To This Dosh?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44208855
....and what should it be used for?

[dannyk13]

Yes, to reduce our national debt.

[ToraToraTora]

yes, well that's the purpose but only if it can pay off the lot so if the government access it it will have to be against the donors will anyway, so in for a penny etc....

[dannyk13]

I suppose it could be left until it grows enough to pay it off in one go, perhaps another thousand years.

[aelmpvw]

will it make any practical difference one way or another?

[Bazile]

Since the National debt is 1.7 trillion - 400 million is not going to make a ripple and will probably never do in the future .

If they are allowed to get at it - then they should use it for something that benefits people directly in a tangible and measurable way and doesn't just disappear in the government coffers .

And there is the 64000 dollar question .
What can they do to achieve the above that benefits all the people .

Perhaps they should just leave it there until it grows substamtially further and then re- visit the question as to what to do with it

[ToraToraTora]

I suggest adding to it until it does pay of the national debt.

[New Judge]

"I suggest adding to it until it does pay of the national debt."

Trouble is, money will have to be borrowed to do that, 3Ts. This will add to the National Debt" Er...er.... :-)

[douglas9401]

Pretty much par for the course from a collection of ineffectual wasters more concerned with playing power games against each other while the country slips ever closer to third world status.

I wonder, if they all sat down in a room with a pen and piece of paper each, could they come up with an idea, just one between them, that would create something worthwhile instead of stealing the kids piggy bank contents to spray about the place like drunken sailors on leave.

They do give the impression of a group with no vision, drive or will to accomplish anything other than enrich themselves and protect their own power bases.

Can another manufactured conflict be far away as the barrel is scraped again?

[douglas9401]

I should probably add that I hold out no hope of the opposition being any better should they, somehow, gain power.

[ToraToraTora]

we could use the WSS budget judge and further austerity measures, let us no forget how much interest we would save

[cassa333]

Perhaps with the help of this £400m if every household contributed just £1 a month we could get the national debt down considerably within a year. Or at least down to a more manageable level.

**tumble tumble tumble weed*

[youngmafbog]

If used at all then I think it would have to be used to offset the National debt. True it was intended to clear it but that is never going to happen so the next best thing, and the closest to the benefactors wishes, is to pay what we can off with it.

Labours idea of giving it the poor, whilst laudable, is not at all what the doner wanted. He/she could easily have stipulated that if that is what they wanted./

Of course, what we havn't seen yet are the lawyers fees that will probably wipe it out and some anyway. So it's probably a moot point.

[gulliver1]

Yes, the present government need this money ,because it is autumn time on their money tree , they have picked it so much to pay the DUP for support.,there aint nowt left.
That's the Nasty party for you.

[New Judge]

"Perhaps with the help of this £400m if every household contributed just £1 a month we could get the national debt down considerably within a year. Or at least down to a more manageable level."

Not really, cassa. There are roughly 25m households in the UK. Your plan would collect £300m in a year, so if we did that for two years we'd have £1bn in the pot with this bequest.

The scale of government debt varies depending on who you ask but it is at least £1 trillion (that's one thousand billion) and is increasing by the minute. So two years of saving from every household together with this bequest would amount to 0.1% of the entire debt. And that's before we take into account how much it would cost to collect £1 a month!

[youngmafbog]

It is actually pointless clearing the debt. The minute a labour Government got in they would go on a spending spree (as history shows) and we would be back to square one. Probably just better to get it back to manageable levels if at all possible.

[Old_Geezer]

Get the National Debt down to £400m then they can have it.