City concern at Treasury deficit figures

City warnings that government finances are set to plunge far deeper into the red than Alistair Darling has forecast mounted yesterday, after figures were released showing that the Treasury racked up its biggest December deficit on record last month - reports The Times.

Tax receipts that were weaker than expected by the Chancellor were the driving force behind the latest sharp deterioration in the public finances, fuelling fears that government borrowing could spiral as a faltering economy further undermines revenue.

The worsening state of the Government's books was underlined by figures showing that net borrowing for the financial year to date climbed to £43.6 billion, £11.4 billion more than in the same nine months in 2006-07 and far above Mr Darling's full-year forecast of £38 billion for 2007-08.

The worse-than-expected December data released yesterday showed that the Treasury was forced to borrow a net £7.8billion last month to plug the gap between spending and the month's disappointing revenues.

Economists said that the Chancellor was on course to breach that forecast by at least £2billion or £3billion (NB: net increase in payments to the EU: £2.5bn), but could end up exceeding it by much more if inflows of revenues continued to weaken.

This news once again highlights the huge irresponsibility of those MPs who approved a lavish 63% increase in payments for the wasteful and fraud-ridden EU, at the recent Third Reading of the European Communities (Finance) Bill.

Beyond such an increase being completely unjustified while auditors cannot explain where the "majority" of the EU's money goes, such extra payments are clearly just not affordable.

Yet, while the public finances take a nose-dive, post offices close and the government quibbles with the police over £30m of their pay deal (to give just two recent, practical examples of the consequences) these MPs seemed to see no problem in approving the extra £2.5bn (net) a year (on top of the £3.5bn net a year we already pay) to an organisation that has failed its audit for 13 years running.

Despite the valiant efforts of some Labour MPs, like Ian Davidson and Austin Mitchell, most of their colleagues seemed unable to distinguish between the government spin (the money is to help poorer countries in Eastern Europe) and the reality (it will be paid to EU institutions, and where the "majority" of it goes from there has long been anyone's guess!).

All the MPs who voted for this Bill either failed in their responsibility to properly scrutinise the government's actions on behalf of their constituents, or they tried but are simply not up to the job.

Either way you cut it, MPs who approved this deal are not of the calibre necessary to be making such important decisions, and have got to go.

With any problems being suffered by public services in their constituencies caused by a shortfall of public money now being their fault, and theirs alone, for voting to approve this abject waste of public cash on the EU, we can only ensure that those MPs who made such an irresponsible choice are punished by local voters at the next election.

This blog, and the DM's Hall of Hypocrisy, will continue with that goal in mind.