Robert Reich has written an article headlined "Britain's Austerity Recession." In it he laments his own created fact that the reason for Britain slipping into a recession recently is due to their austerity; better known as Budget Cuts.

But his claim is a blatant lie. Here are the numbers:

The 2008 U.K. national (excluding local) Budget was £426 billion. It rose to £496 billion in 2010, and the new and current 2012 budget is £527 billion. This is a total increase of 24% within four years.

Increasing your budget six percent in each of four years back-to-back is only austerity when placed against Obama Budgets.

The 2008 U.K. Budget was 26% larger than the one of four years earlier. In other words, England's budget rose on a similar pace from 2005 through 2012.

Hardly "austerity."

When comparing by category the 2012 budget to the 2008 budget, Welfare spending increased 29%; Education 'Investments' as Obama would call it, is up by 20%; and spending on Health Care increased by 21%.

Place U.K.'s budget size against the size of the Country's GDP, and spending is also on the rise: In 2000 the budget was 26% of GDP; it rose to 27.8% four years later; increased to 29% of the GDP by 2008, and is 32.9% of GDP as of 2012.

Daunting austerity?

Local governments in England spent a total £155 billion in 2008, and are spending £185 billion in 2012. In my math book, it is an annual budget increase of 5%. For context, the British population over those four years grew by a total of less than three percent!

If you want, blame the recession on tax! U.K. hiked tax on the Super Rich early last year from 40% to 50%. Instead of getting £1 billion in more revenue, the income to the U.K government from this group dropped by hundreds of millions compared to a year earlier.

Yossi Gestetner blogs at www.GestetnerUpdates.com