Thursday, Aug 28, 2008
Labour 0, Lib Dems 1 - they've been right about the bubble all along
FT Blogs: The Treasury minister who thought the housing crash was a joking matter
Vince Cable held a press conference this morning to outline various ways to ease the pain in the housing market. I’m not sure any of his suggestions will make a massive difference (they include letting housing associations borrow more to buy up empty homes).
But credit to the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, who has long been alert on this issue. As he reminds us, Labour MPs were literally laughing at the idea of an imminent housing crash - as recently as the spring.
Here, as a sorry reminder of government complacency, are extracts from the Hansard account of a debate in April on a Lib Dem-led motion on the housing bubble....
Posted by drewster @ 12:42 AM (405 views) Add Comment
2 Comments
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1. Ijjhall said...
Nick Clegg was quoted recently saying how he was struggling to pay his huge mortgage - he was quite candid about it but added the usual sugary 'so how are the less fortunate than me' managing ? (he obviously thinks votes are in it) Suspect he has pushed this policy but let's face it, it won't be taken seriously as the Lib Dems have always had the freedom to push these wild ideas because everyone knows they won't have the responsibility of implementing them...
As for the Labour laughter, most Labour MPs and Cabinet Ministers come from a social work/teaching background...Jacqui Smith the home secretary was a primary school teacher. I not knocking that job, but what preperation is it for running a country ? the debate quoted in this article just shows this all up.
2. techieman said...
Yes appalling lack of foresight from HMG. However im not sure if they (Labour) knew that they had thrown the dice for the last 15 years and it had come up 6s all the time and that they KNEW it would crap out at some stage but not when OR (as seems more likely) they were egotistical and naive enough to think that there were right and that they had secured the macro economic holy grail of defeating the business cycle. I know this is not going to go down well here but it might be interesting to read memoirs of this period (even by GB!).