IT has been interesting to note Boris Johnson likening his proposed £5 billion in infrastructure investment to that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal in the US in the 1930s.
This is highly disingenuous given the gulf between Mr Johnson’s proposals and the New Deal of Roosevelt.
The US president spent about $41.7bn on the New Deal, equating to about £10.1bn in 1931. Or, to put it another way, twice that of Boris Johnson’s proposed New Deal in actual cash terms 90 years later.
Roosevelt’s New Deal expenditure would equate to about $700bn in today’s money, around £570bn, although some estimates put it as high as £800bn.
It should also be noted that the figures announced by Mr Johnson amount to just 0.2 per cent of the UK’s economic output. In comparison, Roosevelt’s economic stimulus is estimated to have represented 40 per cent of the US’s 1929 economic output. It is also far outweighed by Germany’s recently announced £120bn stimulus package, accounting to nearly 4 per cent of that country’s economic output.
One would suspect there is also more than meets the eye to what is actual genuine new money when it comes to Mr Johnson’s stimulus package.
In looking at these figures, Mr Johnson’s deal is far from ideal.
Alex Orr
Via email
FURTHER to the article on people urinating outside front doors (June 27) – welcome to our world. Try living near Ibrox or Parkhead when Rangers and Celtic are playing and it’s a normal occurrence. Still Glasgow City Council refuse to implement the same measures afforded to residents at Hampden or Scotstoun. Why?
Self-interest maybe?
Name and address supplied
YOUR article notes “long overgrown grass” (Mourners brand Riddrie Cemetery ‘disgrace’ after lockdown neglect).
Perhaps we might be better getting used to such sights in our parks, verges, graveyards, etc, as the financial cost of Covid hits our local authorities.
And before the anti-SNP lobby start going on a rant – no political party could have foreseen this coming.
However, to get our lives back to some form of “normal”, we’re going to have to accept cost of living rises across the board. Unfortunate, but that’s life!
William Smith
Posted online
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