Thursday, May 15, 2008
The mess Labour always seems to leave behind....
Telegraph: Financial crisis: Labour's history is repeating
''...The twilight years of Labour governments are always like this: the pound in freefall, the economy sliding towards a possible recession and the public finances out of control. And the ultimate bill left in the hands of households, blameless in every respect but for their foolish decision to vote the ministers in....''
Posted by hpwatcher @ 08:39 AM (940 views) Add Comment
18 Comments
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1. hpwatcher said...
''...With luck, it won't be as nasty as the early Nineties housing crash and recession, though there's no guarantee....''
I think it will be far worse as the country is far more vunerable now, than in the 1990's.
2. mken said...
'...The twilight years of Labour governments are always like this: the pound in freefall, the economy sliding towards a possible recession and the public finances out of control. And the ultimate bill left in the hands of households, blameless in every respect but for their foolish decision to vote the ministers in....''
The only difference being that this time all of this resulted from NuLabour's blind pursuit of Conservative ideas having ditched
their own to become electable. Because of this drive to become electable there is now little difference between the parties.
And that's because we'd rather keep shopping than think. In this sense the electorate is far from blameless.
3. harold said...
mken, as I've said ad nauseam, we are a one-system state run periodically by different factions: Labour or Conservative. But in essence there is no real difference, and therefore no real choice.
4. tyrellcorporation said...
I completely disagree. Labour is hell-bent on creating a client state whereas the Conservatives achieve a reduction in the State. Just look at the ballooning of the state payroll since Labour came to power - they have reversed all the reductions that took place under the Conservatives. It all boils down to whether or not you think the State makes a better fist of spending your money than you do. That is the fundamental difference IMHO and a question which doesn't get asked enough.
5. harold said...
tyrellcorporation, I would agreed with you if the Tories were the party as-of-old, but Cameron shows all the signs of thinking he can fix things (which is unfortunately what the public have been taught to expect from their government). If you think rightwing means less government and less tax, just look at the US to be disabused of this idea. The left-right dichotomy is false - a better way to view things IMHO is the rights of the individual verses collectivism (the state). The present Tory leadership are rightwing collectivists. My only concession would be that, unlike Labour, they have nice haircuts.
6. tyrellcorporation said...
...and sharp suits! ;)
7. tyrellcorporation said...
Some people will recoil at this but I reckon Cameron is doing a Tony (but in reverse). He's making all the right fluffy tree-hugging noises to placate Middle England but (I hope) once in power he'll start wringing necks and getting the UK back towards solvency again. The political and economic see-sawing continues ad infinitum.
8. drewster said...
What about the 1992 ERM debacle? The Tories reigned over that recession and the collapse in Sterling. It's a bit rich to blame "same old Labour" every time. Just goes to show that we can't expect unbiased reporting from the Telegraph.
9. jack c said...
@3. harold - spot on comment (again !)
10. tyrellcorporation said...
Hasn't Sterling collapsed more over the last 6 months than the 1992 ERM event? Odd that the media have hardly mentioned this. Just goes to show that we can't expect unbiased reporting from the UK media.
11. letthemfall said...
This is the Telegraph parading its traditional colours. I don't go along with the idea that it is only Labour that has disasters. The Conservatives have had their fair share too, the ERM for one as Drewster points out. Ted Heath's govt wasn't exactly disaster-free either, going back further.
To some extent all govts are victims of events and forces they struggle but are unable to control. Couple that with misplaced self belief, ideology, thin understanding of all the issues they need to understand, and the result is what we are seeing now and have seen in the past.
I say Vince Cable for PM. Worth a shot anyway. Won't happen though.
12. shipbuilder said...
I agree with harold - the sooner we stop pretending that one of these goups of idiots is fundanentally better than the other anymore, the sooner we move on. Every policy that these jokers come up with now is just tinkering at the edges to get cheap votes. We need decisive and radical reform.
13. doom&gloom said...
@8 drewster. Agree with you - I'm sure I'm not the oldest poster here, but can still remember Lamont/Major/ERM exit/recession, etc. Think it's important to keep balance and not descend into party politics. Management of the economy is too complex a job for politicians of any party IMHO.
Although Brown is doing a sterling job of really looking like he hasn't a clue.
14. confused76 said...
"The only hope is that most of those laid off will be Eastern Europeans who will return home rather than sticking around - good news for the labour market, if not for those seeking a cheap plumber."
This is a comment I hope Conway will regret.
15. uncle tom said...
Harold is pretty much on the right track.
It was always Labour's problem not to have the right skills for government - sociology lecturers and solicitors a-plenty, but no entrepreneurs; while the Tories had a raft a real world, battle hardened talent to draw on. Running the country requires much the same skills as running a business.
But we havn't got real Tories back in opposition now, in that they are now cut from the same cloth as Labour; professional politicians, almost invariably graduates with degrees in law, politics, or something equally useless, and with no business experiance.
Where are the self made businesmen on the opposition benches now?
Anagram: 'David Cameron Tory MP' = 'Void party commander'
16. shipbuilder said...
Uncle Tom - I guess it depends what your priorities are. To me, 'running the country like a business' sound like an awful concept. Are we simply a country of slaves and production operatives, born to 'service the economy'?
Hasn't this been exactly what Blair's Thatcherite vision was, with his glut of NHS, managers, consultants, targets? Hasn't worked, in my opinion. I thought conservative policy was small government and leave business to the businessmen?
I would prefer government to deal with the 'soft' things, such as justice, law and equality. Of course, if you mean running public services efficiently, then fair enough, but again they're not everything.
17. uncle tom said...
shipbuilder,
I said that running the country requires the same skills as running a business, which is not quite the same as 'running the country AS a business'
Good businessman know about looking after costs, and getting good value, they know not to throw good money after bad, don't waste time when someone is trying to rip them off, and don't have more admin staff than is strictly necessary - a pretty good qualification for running the country.
However, the business of running the country includes the need to be supportive and compassionate towards the genuinely needy, and to protect the vulnerable. That is part of the 'product' of UK plc, and is not incompatible with a business-like approach to delivery.
18. Van Hoogstraten said...
This labour government has been a lot worse than the others - at least previous ones tried their own policies which had some elements of principled socialism - this mob just aped many conservative ideas but with their usual financial incompetency - labour politicians' economic ability extends about as far as running the bar at the student union.