I say good day to you sir...

Ousted Prime Minister Gordon Brown

May 18, 2010: Last weeks election in the United Kingdom saw the Labour Party ushered out of office after thirteen years of good times and bad and replaced with Conservative David Cameron.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, just three years into the job, was beaten by a coalition government consisting of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Voters had tired of the Labour Party's performance.

In 1997, Labour came to power with Tony Blair leading the charge as a change agent, after two decades of Conservative rule at 10 Downing Street with Margaret Thatcher and John Majors.

But after a decade of rising government expenses coupled with a sluggish economy, the political pendulum moved right.

The new Prime Minister Cameron, inherits a government that will enivitably be forced to raise taxes and slash services to cover the cost of rising public debt.

This is a result of his predecessors inability to reign in exploding government spending.

Unemployment in Britain is eight percent, the highest level in forteen years. The country's government debt as a percentage of GDP is a whopping 68%, and after years of pouring money into government services the country now faces escalating problems including a fiscal deficit that equalled 11.6% of GDP in 2009-10.

The ousted Brown contributed to this problem by his spending splurge as chancellor of the exchequer before he was elected Prime Minister, just years before the global recession pulled back the curtains on Britain's fiscal carelessness.

The problems in Britain are similar to the problems faced in the United States: growing government spending exacerbated by a sluggish economy which equals mountains of red ink.

Much has been written about Europe's debt situation. Public policy watchers will be paying attention to see if the new conservative Tory government in Britain can climb the mountain of public debt without falling.