A Rare Bit of Reality

[Alex L]

From Labour List

"The lesson is clear and simple. We have to take a proportional share of the blame for today's economic mess, because our spending patterns between 2001 and 2007 created an unsustainable burden on the public finances."

"it was Balls and Miliband who led much of the high spending in the mid-2000s."

The full article:

[jimslip]

Whats more interesting than the article itself, is the immediate and total dissmissal and denial of all the points the writer has painstakenly made, in the first comment underneath. The guy writes,

"Ok, most of what is said in this article is pretty sensible, but largely missing the point - the issue now is to avoid recession and start to stimulate growth ......"

How depressing it must for Luke the writer of the main article, to see that this idiot has totally missed the point of his piece, ie trying to rebuild NL's credibility with the economy.

The guy who commented is in fact saying, "Yeah, sure we fucked up.....a bit maybe, but so what? All we have to do is get our hands on the economy again and everything will be alright, cos we learnt from our mistakes, right? We should be given another chance, NOW! Why? errrm, cos we are New Layba, we're the good guys, aren't we? We DESERVE to be in power!"

[David Johnson]

Hi Alex,

Luke Bozier seems to be one of your favourites.

Here is my response to another Luke Bozier post you quoted from the Labour List awhile back on the same subject.

http://bgafd.co.uk/forum/read.php?f=3&i=248371&t=248333

You seemed for whatever reason unable to reply last time.

Hopefully you may be able to put together a reply this time.

Cheers
D

[Gusset Sniffer]

The deficit is going up not down under the tories. When are they going to make cuts? WTF is going on?

[David Johnson]

"The deficit is going up not down under the tories."

Absolutely correct.

"When are they going to make cuts?

They have made cuts. 20% in many councils. 16,000 police jobs to go. Huge defence cuts. 6 billion pounds worth of spending announced 2 months after the election. Huge cuts in the NHS (the Tories call this "savings") with waiting times soaring, disabled benefit cuts etc etc.

"WTF is going on? "

What the fuck is going on is exactly what the Lib Dems, the Labour party and many leading economists said before the election about the Tory policy to cut the entire deficit in 5 years i.e. the cuts were too deep and too fast.

How it works is this

1 Tory government comes to power and announces the country is on the brink of collapse, that we are just like Greece and we will all have to put up with a lot of pain and redundancies. They say most of this non-stop for 18 months and also say there is absolutely no alternative. Terrifying the public has the added benefit in that it helps force through measures such as the NHS reforms which were not in the Tory manifesto other than as a one liner.

2. The great British public think "Oh fuck I'm worried about losing my job, jesus I have lost my job, getting a real terms pay cut because their salary doesnt go up and inflation does. Fuck if I lose my job, I will lose my house etc etc.

3. Consumer spending collapses as a result of the great British public being too terrified to spend, instead they try to pay off their debts, mortgages etc. Retail collapses and large numbers lose their jobs and have to depend on benefits instead. Large numbers of people in the NHS get made redundant as part of the NHS reforms and then need substantial redundancy packages and benefits. The service sector which represents 70% of the British economy collapses. As a result of the increase in unemployment and the collapse of consumer demand, the tax incomes coming into the Treasury goes down, down.

4. As a result of the situation where there is no growth because there are no government growth plans worth mentioning and the tax take is heading south fast, the deficit goes up. If the Tories tried to increase cuts even more, all that would happen is that the deficit would be increased further as the panic spreads more amongst the middle classes in terms of cutting back spending.

Solution: As suggested by the Lib Dems and Labour before the election you have cuts but at a slower pace and concentrate much more on growth rather than just on debt cuts.

Cheers
D

[one eyed jack]

I love it when people bash Labour and seem to forget they are in office right now keeping things as bad, if not worse than before.

As far as Im concerned, Labour are akin to Tories right now but at least Labour didnt make as many cutbacks as the Tories who have done and yet there is still no improvement in sight.

Their all out to line their own pockets and to turn this into a pissing contest betwen the two is to be blinded by what they are really doing right now

How can we have any growth in the economy when our own governments and business are selling off our national assets to foreign interests to profit from cheaper labour?

[jimslip]

Having read your post I forgot to post the !shitstorm! smiley. After all how dare you publish an article that dares suggest or even imply that New Labour may not have got things quite right in the past.

Let me explain how you post such a thread. It needs to go something like this, "New Labour made some miscalculations during their years as regards public spending, BUT IF THE TORIES HAD BEEN IN POWER THINGS WOULD HAVE BEEN INFINITELY WORSE!"

Here's another example, "In 2007 Gordon Brown sold off half the UK's gold reserves at a price that may not been to the advantage to the nation. HOWEVER IF THE TORIES HAD BEEN IN POWER THEY WOULD HAVE PROBABLY GIVEN ALL THE GOLD AS GIFTS TO TAX EXILES OR MAYBE EVEN PUT IT INTO GREAT BIG ENVELOPES AND POSTED IT TO "CASH FOR GOLD" AND BEEN GIVEN NOTHING FOR IT!"

Now Alex, you have a go! lol

In the mean time, sit back, relax and be TOLD exactly why and how YOU ARE SO, SO WRONG! lol

[Alex L]

Hi

"Luke Bozier seems to be one of your favourites."

Not necessarily a favourite, but perceptive enough to warrant a read.


"You seemed for whatever reason unable to reply last time."

"Hopefully you may be able to put together a reply this time."


Sorry, I thought your post was a statement, did not appear to be a question, I read your post, read the link content and digested.

Yes, there are some interesting stats there, for example look at the Net Debt as % of GDP (Excluding Financial Interventions) almost 60% in the last year of New Labour!

[Alex L]

Thanks for the smiley!

If you could kindly put all of your suggestions regarding "posting" and how to remain safe into a nice little e-book, oh and make it so that I can pay through Paypal, I would go for that!

[Alex L]

It's not about Labour bashing, the link I posted was to an article on a Labour website which rather unusually suggests that they, for a change take some of the blame for what has happened to the economy.

I agree with your line:

"Their all out to line their own pockets"

But however you look at it, 3.5 Trillion of debt is a rather large lump, the re-payment of which does need to be considered.