“If the Chancellor had spent less time writing stale jokes for his speech and the Prime Minister less time guffawing like a feeding seal we would not have been landed in this mess. The Conservatives economic credibility is shredded.”
John McDonnell MP Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The acolytes of those two looming Labour figures Blair & Brown would never admit it, but with his experience at the Greater London Council, always bringing in a balanced budget, so successful at its job that Thatcher got rid of it, McDonnell is far better placed & far more experienced at the economic strategies required to see the UK through these increasingly fractious times.
Brown & McDonnell would, privately, probably agree on what Britain’s economic strategy going forward should be – and it would be less laissez faire and more invest & build. Brown & McDonnell are also of one voice when it comes to our future in light of Brexit and the threats of the SNP. Both want us to stick together as we face the difficulties ahead of us.
“The third option, a patriotic Scottish way and free from the absolutism of the SNP and the do-nothingism of the Tories, is now essential because post-Brexit realities make the status quo redundant and require us to break with the past.
“The status quo has been overtaken by events because unless powers now with the European Union are repatriated from Brussels to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the regions, Whitehall will have perpetrated one of the biggest power grabs by further centralising power, employment and energy.
“The patriotic way means that Scotland is not caught between a die-hard conservatism that denies the Scottish Parliament the powers it needs and a hard-line nationalism that throws away the resources we secure from being part of the Union.”
Sticking together and working our way out of trouble is the only way in a capitalist system, which is the system we have got : build your way out of the hole, and create the society & economy you wish to see. We did exactly that in 1945, and we were in a far worse state back then. We can do that again, if we apply the same sense of collective spirit, civic duty & fairness that was enforced back then.
Our debt to GDP was north of 200% when we built the NHS & Welfare State out of the rubble left after World war 2. That’s worse than the economy in Greece has ever been.
Today our debt is up from 69% under Labour in 2010 to 92% in 2016 under the Tories.
If only Tony Blair had been kept away from the MoD & Foreign Office, this Omnishambles Tory rule might have been avoided. Gordon Brown, a charmless lout with a great “great big clunking fist” was at times blundering, but he was a damnside more useful than the limp wrist economics of Theresa May’s damp sock in Number 11 Downing Street, Philip Hammond.
Brown is to this day often castigated for “lumbering us in this mess” by the Tories – usually whenever their own failures are being scrutinised. Failing to regulate the City was a mistake, as was not making a sovereign wealth fund from the North Sea Oil reserves, and selling off the gold reserves at the bottom of the market was at best shortsighted and at worst stupid. And PFI? Nice debt Iceberg, Gordon. Smooth move.
But it would be churlish of us, his critics in the Labour Party, or the British Electorate to swallow, repeat or worse fail to counter the nonsense peddled by people like Nick Clegg & David Cameron from 2010 onwards, with increasingly shrill intensity, until the whole political bubble went ‘pop!’ with Brexit.
The line about Gordon Brown crashing the global economy by building too many schools & hospitals, and hiring too many teachers & nurses? The line based on the cliched accepted truth in the political class about Labour & the tories – that Labour borrows, but the Tories ‘balance the books’?
But is that line true? We hear it often enough that it must be, surely?
According to TaxResearch.Org, ‘no’ :
“….what do we learn? Two essential things, I suggest.
First, Labour invariably borrows less than the Conservatives. The data always shows that.
And second, Labour has always repaid debt more often than the Conservatives, and has always repaid more debt, on average.
The trend does not vary however you do the data.
Or, to put it another way, the Conservatives are the party of high UK borrowing and low debt repayment contrary to all popular belief.”
With the National Insurance Tax increase Uturn signalling the unravelling of yet another omnishambles Tory budget, it became abundantly clear that the Tories do not deserve this oft repeated reputation.
Their record on the economy is woeful. We have cut the flesh, the meat and the bones from our economy, slashed services and vital infrastructure and gained nothing save more debt.
#ToryElectionFraud #TerribleTheresa #UniteAgainstTheRight#HandsOffOurNHS #JC4PM
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