Sunday, Jan 11, 2009
Does anyone in Westminster has a clue?
Daily Telegraph: Interest rates and the economy: Does anyone in charge have a clue what to do?
It's not just new Labour that hasn't got a clue what to do. Its also most of those in Westminster and Whitehall. While they have their index linked gold plated pensions can we really expect them to care? To start fixing this mess we need to remove their pensions - then they will start to think!
Posted by who stole my pension? @ 12:43 PM (923 views) Add Comment
15 Comments
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1. whiteknight said...
Maybe Sir Alan was correct in the 5 - 20 year timeframe, but catastrophically wrong in the 20 - 200 year ?
2. mark wadsworth said...
No.
3. whiteknight said...
please elaborate.
4. Tyke said...
I don't often agree with Simon Heffer's views as he tends to think that anywhere outside of the South East is still populated by people who wear a cloth cap and muffler and keep whippets and racing pigeons.
However I must congratulate him on a quality article in this instance which hits the nail on the head about the state of this country.
5. letthemfall said...
"Everything else is simply propaganda."
Or in other words: I'm right, everyone else is wrong. Still, not as absurd as calling John Redwood a genius.
Cut public spending, give it to the private sector. Well, that worked well in the eighties didn't it: big recession, huge unemployment; Lawson boom, house price explosion; 90s recession. Productive private sector?? Does he mean like the banks?
6. stillthinking said...
Spot on. They don't have a clue. Why on earth does anybody think New Labour has any idea how to fix things?
Letthemfall, your clothes, food, energy, tv, the house you live in, come from the private sector. It is not called the productive side of the economy for nothing. Nobody is advocating pointlessly cutting public services, but the simple fact is that people are paying for public services but not receiving them. If you want to try living in a socialist state then OK, fine, but they have all failed in the past and perhaps we should have a vote on that, being a democracy...
This article makes the very obvious point that the ministers in New Labour have no prior knowledge or experience of anything to do with the UK economy.
The issue that you fail to consider, is that we are going into a big recession, and we going to have huge unemployment, but we want all unpleasantness to stop in the end. They won't stop under New Labour.
7. letthemfall said...
stillthinking: stillvotingTory?
And all healthcare, education, defence, etc comes from the public sector. Just as valuable, just as important. Perhaps you should articulate the simple facts you refer to; which services are you paying for but not receiving?
I have no illusions about a Labour govt or political ideologies. You seem to think the Torys are the answer to the unpleasantness, although during their last period in power they were unable to doing anything about the unpleasantness they created. All govts since the war have failed in some way. Before you patronise other people, consider that your opinions are more a product of your political stance - which you are of course entitled to - rather than any appeal to logic or history.
8. braindeed said...
@stillthinking : The issue that you fail to consider, is that we are going into a big recession, and we going to have huge unemployment, but we want all unpleasantness to stop in the end. They won't stop under New Labour
And the Tories ate noted for avoiding 'unpleasantness'?!!!!.....price worth paying?......no society......cities aflame.......
We live in truely exceptional times , bare faced partizanship and piss-poor arguments like that will solve feck all.
The totally 'free market' is the cause ofl this nightmare. anybody got any constructive arguments?
9. mark wadsworth said...
The cause of all this was not 'free markets', not in the slightest.
The cause of this was Labour nicking the Tories' idea that house price bubbles are a good thing, as they create the illusion of wealth. Until they pop, of course, when we (collectively) end up worse off than we started.
To create a house price bubble, you need a few basic ingredients:
1. Economically illiterate population who are all NIMBYs and obsessed with housing wealth.
2. Lax banking supervision, low interest rates and/or loosening capital adequacy ratios.
3. Strict planning laws, so that 'new money' just goes into pushing up house prices and not into new home building.
4. A tax system that taxes property income and gains much more lightly than employment or business income.
Once it gets going, the house price and credit bubbles are self-fulfilling, then it all goes BANG. Then the next government starts again, using the false logic that falling house prices went hand in hand with a recession, therefore rising house prices are a good thing and we do it all again.
This is all easily fixed.
1. Educate people about basic economics instead of pandering to their short term self-interest.
2. Proper banking supervision
3. Liberalise planning laws.
4. Land Value Tax instead of Council Tax etc, so that a property bubble is seen as a bad thing, because you have to pay more tax if your home increases in value faster than wages or normal inflation.
The chances of any of 1 to 4 happening are close to zero, because people are basically either greedy or dumb. But mainly dumb.
10. whiteknight said...
thanks Mark
11. fjcruiser said...
No politicain has any clue to how to handle any crisis, whether left or right. The economic crisis has unfortunately got to run its course. If only governments stop meddling, economic crisis would not turn into recessions or depressions. We get boom and bust simply because we do not have free market economies although the propaganda tell us so.
Back to the free market please.Oh yes, we dont need elected politicians then!
12. enuii said...
Big Government doesn't solve problems, it magnifies them, so even Bigger Government = Even More Problems.
All big governments throughout history have failed due to the fact that they either became bankrupt or simply couldn't manage what they had created it's just that some lasted longer than others.
13. andrew said...
I don't think that anybody is saying that the Tories have all the answers, but you cannot blame somebody for thinking logically that if things are so so bad under Labour and they are still intent on making the situation worse, then maybe just maybe give another lot in power another chance to maybe do the right thing.
I don't think you are proving yourself to be somehow more intelligent in consistently pointing out that you or your arguments and thinking are above "party politics", yes I am refering to "letthemfall". All you seem to be saying is, the system is broken there is no answer, if that is the case then we might as well just all give up and accept that we are slaves to our masters.
Both Tory and Labour governments had a chance to do so much when in power, most recently Labour, with a huge majority. Practical examples of failure include, higher salaries for Teachers, renovating schools but no improvement in educational standards. Labour also had the chance to vastly improve the NHS, again higher salaries and pensions are the norm but most of us would be sh@t scared to go in for serious treatment if we fell ill.
Yes it is a merry go round, of lets give it another go, but it is all we have, if there was a third credible party to vote for we probably would, but by ignoring the Tories you are helping the Labour to get into power and destroy further through blatant social engineering, incompitence and yes higher taxes, what is left of the UK.
14. crunchy said...
12. enuii
The Roman empire. Too big to fail.
15. crunchy said...
9. mark wadsworth
Sad but true. Not an election winner. Slow but sure does win the race all round.
Most would call that boring. D'oh.