Is It A Joke That There's No Money Left

On Bloomberg: ‘There’s No Money Left,’ U.K. Minister Learns

• May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Arriving for work at the U.K. Treasury last week, the incoming chief secretary, David Laws, found a note from his predecessor, Liam Byrne, offering advice on the job.
  
  “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left,” Laws cited it as saying.
  
  “Which was honest,” Laws, whose position is the No. 2 in the Treasury after the chancellor of the exchequer, told a press conference in London today. “But slightly less than I was expecting.”
  
  The note underscores the task facing Britain’s Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition as it seeks to reconcile demand for improved health and education services with promises to reduce the largest budget deficit since World War II.
  
  It was also in the tradition of Reginald Maudling, Conservative chancellor of the exchequer from 1962 to 1964. Leaving his residence after election defeat, he was reported byJames Callaghan, his successor, to have remarked, “Sorry, old cock, to leave it in this shape.”
  
  Byrne didn’t respond to requests for comment. He was quoted by Sky News as saying the note was a joke. “I do hope David Laws’ sense of humour wasn’t another casualty of the coalition deal,” he said, according to Sky News.
  
  According to the Treasury, the letter read as follows: “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there’s no money. Kind regards -- and good luck! Liam.”

Hmm.... good sense of humour?

Here's the UK Sun version:

• FORMER Treasury boss Liam Byrne stunned his successor today by admitting that the UK is skint.
  Labour MP Mr Byrne made the shock confession in a letter to David Laws, the new Treasury Secretary.
  
  The one-line note, left on Mr Laws' new desk, said: "I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left."
  
  Lib Dem Mr Laws said the letter was "slightly less helpful than I had been expecting".
  
  But Mr Byrne insisted the message was meant as a private joke.
  
  He said: "My letter was a joke, from one Chief Secretary to another.
  
  "I do hope David Laws' sense of humour wasn't another casualty of the coalition deal."
  
  The short summary of the serious challenges facing the new power-sharing administration was revealed as George Osborne announced he will deliver his first emergency Budget on June 22.
  
  The budget will be revealed by the new Chancellor exactly six weeks after the forming of the new Tory-Lib Dem coalition Government.
  
  Mr Osborne is next week expected to give details of £6billion of spending cuts to be made this year.
  
  Speaking at the Treasury with Mr Laws alongside him, Mr Osborne warned that failure to tackle the UK's record deficit would be "disastrous".
  
  Mr Osborne insisted the cuts this year were achievable without affecting frontline public services.
  
  He said that the "great majority" of the savings would be used to start paying down the deficit.
  
  He said: "It is the clear view of the Treasury and the Governor of the Bank of England that these are necessary actions to ensure stability and secure the recovery.
  
  "The Treasury's assessment is that there is a strong economic case for an immediate spending reduction of £6billion. So we are in no doubt that this action is advisable.
  
  "By tackling wasteful spending now rather than later, we can demonstrate our commitment to tackling the deficit."
  
  Mr Osborne confirmed plans to hand over responsibility for setting the forecasts for economic growth and government borrowing — on which the Budget calculations are based — to the newly created Office for Budget Responsibility under Sir Alan Budd.
  
  He said: "Again and again, the temptation to fiddle the figures, to nudge up a growth forecast here or reduce a borrowing number there, to make the numbers add up has proved too great, and that is a significant part of the reason for our current problems.
  
  "I am the first Chancellor to remove the temptation to fiddle figures by giving up control of the economic and fiscal forecasts. I recognise that this will create a rod for my back down the line.
  
  "That is the whole point. We need to fix the Budget to fit the figures, not fix the figures to fit the Budget."
  
  source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2975692/Labour-letter-UK-is-skint.html