Stock market crash

[Jonone]

necessary illusions so they can 'carry on as normal'

[David Johnson]

..or learning how to use threads......

[jimslip]

You sit there and take notes and say, "Yes, David you are absolutely correct, if New Labour were still in power everything would be just peachy!"

How quickly he forgets that New Labour were in power SINCE 1997 and presided over the total economic fuck up of this country. All this or any other government can do now is put a Bandaid over the terminal wounds that have been endured by our economy at the hands of New Labour twats.

You can spout your dodgy stats till the cows come home, but it's all tosh I'm afraid. It's payback time and it's got NOTHING to do with the Tories!

In the mean time, what's New Labour's answer to the problems facing us?

!cigar!PRINT MORE MONEY!cigar!

[David Johnson]

Ah Jimbo, another person who appears terrified of anyone with a differing view to his, asking him questions.

Perhaps you can have a discussion with Robches -

Robches "You're absolutely right, Jimbo."

Jimbo "Thanks, it is Labour's fault isn't it?"

Robches "Yes, you, of course are right, Jimbo."

Jimbo "I am glad you include my name in the message, otherwise, I wouldnt know who you are replying to. Ever thought of using threads?"

Robches "There's no need to be nasty"

Cheers

[David Johnson]

"the reason there's a deficit is because tax income didn't cover the high public spending before the credit crunch/banking crash. Had the Labour government had a spending review mid 2000s, and reduced public spending, the deficit today would have been smaller. We must begin to admit that we were fiscally irresponsible for years, in order to gain the trust of the public again, at least on the economy."

I've never heard of the guy who posted the above, but he obviously hasn't got much of a grasp of economics or indeed, history.

As a starter for ten, have a look at the graph here which tracks the deficit by year run up by UK governments between 1979 and 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... ed-picture

In the case of the Tory government from 79 to 97 in the entire 18 year period there were only two years when the Tories were not in deficit. If you compare that with the Labour government, you will see that up to the time the global financial recession hit in 2007, Labour did a considerably better job.

You will find that the vast majority of UK governments have run a deficit, I suspect.

Now the usual excuse trotted out by Tories is "Ah yes but there was the huge financial services boom which the Labour government took advantage of" The only problem with this argument is that you can say exactly the same about the Tories in the sense that Thatcher sold off the vast majority of the nationalised industries and got a huge windfall. In addition it was Thatcher who deregulated the City and created the "loadsamoney" City culture by so doing. In addition, the Tory government, in business terms took advantage of the greatest business revolution since the mid-19th century which was the world of personal computing which revolutionised businesses throughout the world and produced a staggering boost to the services industry. So despite all of that, Thatcher managed to do considerably worse than the Labour government prior the global recession.

In addition, Labour poured money into the NHS, education and infrastructure generally. City centres like Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool etc were transformed. The independent Kings Foundation said that there had been a big improvement in the NHS from the point of near collapse in 97.

The mistakes that the Labour government made were:

1. Not regulating the banking industry enough. The Tories would have done no better given they have always been for light touch business regulation.

2. Not doing enough to avoid an over-emphasis on financial services. Again given that Thatcher had destroyed much of British manufacturing, Labour alas were carrying on from Thatcher.

So in short the vast majority of UK governments have run a deficit as far as I am aware, certainly in the last 30 years so the quote you take is stating the obvious. If there had been less of a deficit, the global recession wouldnt have been as bad. Bleeding obvious.

But a Chancellor such as Osborne who in 2006 stated in Dublin that he was there to look and learn how to run a tiger economy in order to produce sustained growth, is unlikely to have done any better. In fact, I guess it would have been worse.

Cheers
D

[muswell]

Clever chap that Gordon Brown managed to ruin the whole of the world economy and did such a good job that not even Messrs Osbourne and Cameron can fix it.

[andy at handiwork]

What do you mean '...not even...'?

[David Johnson]

"Clever chap that Gordon Brown managed to ruin the whole of the world economy and did such a good job that not even Messrs Osbourne and Cameron can fix it."

Yeah, but you just wait until they get back from their hols and Cleggie comes back from wherever he is. Then it'll be sorted dead quick.

You'll see.

Or maybe...

Cheers
D

[Arginald Valleywater]

One its a global downturn and two Broon and VP Blair were more than happy to see their billionaire banker chums lend money for fun and then bail them out when it went tits up. The Euro is dead, long live the pound.

[Robches]

David,

I think you'll find that all governments everywhere have been running defecits at least since the end of WWII. That's the problem, they have been spending the kids' inheritance, and no there's no more money. The US government is "borrowing" money from the Fed, in effect from itself. How long can that last? Not much longer I'd say. All governments have been living beyond their means for decades, and now the party's over. Shame, but that's the way it is.