Its Labour wot got us in this mess

[David Johnson]

Hi,

You may have noticed for about 6 months now every Lib Dem Con speaker has started a defence of their cuts with something on the lines of "we have been left with this terrible mess by the Labour government. These arent our cuts they are the Labour party's cuts etc etc".

The gullible , weak brained have swallowed this incessant barrage from the Lib Dem Cons and the 90+% dominated Tory tax avoiding media.

The point to get is that this view is nonsense.

Extreme right-wing deficit hawks like Osborne pretend that the deficit had already ballooned prior to the 2008 banking crash when, in fact, as Labour's new shadow chancellor, Alan Johnson, pointed out this country entered the financial crisis with the second-lowest Budget deficit in the G7.

If Labour's spending was so wildly out of control, why did the Tories promise to match their plans, pound for pound, all the way until November 2008? Why didn't Osborne and Cameron howl in protest at the time?

The budget of 2007 estimated Britain's structural deficit - that chunk of the debt that won't be mopped up by growth - at 3% of gross domestic product. At the time, the revered Institute for Fiscal Studies accepted that two-thirds of that sum comprised borrowing for investment, leaving a black hole of just 1% of GDP. If the structural deficit today has rocketed close to 8%, all that proves is that most of it was racked up dealing with the banking crisis and subsequent slump - with only a fraction the result of supposed Labour profligacy. After all, even the Tories would have had to pay out unemployment benefit.

You could argue that the Labour party should have regulated the banks more closely. This criticism is undeniable. However you cannot make this criticism if you are a Tory because the Tories tried to oppose any plans whatsoever to regulate any aspect of the City.

In short, the banking crisis caused the recession, the worst since the 1930s, not Labour profligacy. The idea that it was Labour profligacy was introduced by the Lib Dem COns in order to back up the most concerted onslaught on the poor, the welfare state, the state education system and the NHS seen in a generation.

Cheers
D

[Dick Moby]

David,I know that this is the O.T Forum but why not ask the mods if you could have a Labour Party Forum. I'm sure most of the other posters would be delighted to join you in telling everybody how good labour is/was.

[David Johnson]

Hi
Correct it is an O/T forum and you are not a moderator.

I was responding to a comment by Jimslip to the effect that it was Labour profligacy that partly resulted in the situation the country is in.

If you are not interested, no-one forces you to read my posts and vice versa.

Cheers
D

[Dick Moby]

David, pal, my evenings would not be complete unless I had read some of your musings. I hate to say it, but I have actually agreed with some of your views but it would go against the grain to admit it too often.
A little tip I picked up from the Labour party called disguising the truth.