One of the exams I keep failing is all about the analysis of words and their meaning in the context in which they are presented. One of the depressing consequences of having spent over five years honing this skill (not yet to perfection, mind) is that I sub-consciously apply it to situations outside the work place. Recently I have also become better at instinctively detecting a lie or suspicious behaviour from several hundred yards or even behind me. These two skills combine to sickening effect, especially when watching Newsnight for some reason.
Ms Yvette Cooper* who is Labour’s economics-media stooge was on again last night arguing with Mr Philip Hammond who is the Tories’ equivalent.
Ms Cooper was repeating (again) the line about this not being the right time to “take money out of the economy” which is what, she said, the Tories wanted to do as the economy plummets. She said that we must not repeat the mistakes of the 1980s when the evil sick Tories laid waste to “a generation” by cutting back the state when the money ran out. It was right, she said, to keep borrowing to bounce the economy back out of the doldrums. Then she went on to defend the confident forecasts of imminent economic boom by saying that it is possible for the economy to grow quickly out of a recession – just like it did in the 1980s [when the evil sick Tories laid waste to "a generation" by cutting back the state when the money ran out]…
The Lib Dems’ Olly Grender was on later. She said that voters’ blood would boil at the kind of positioning that both main parties are undertaking while the economy sinks and the money runs out. I agree.
If Ms Cooper is going to compare this situation with that of the Thatcher recovery she must compare like with like. The way Britain recovered after the last Labour fiasco was by: raising taxes and cutting public spending, privatisation and a bonfire of economic controls. Mrs T did not keep borrowing, hoping that the economy would recover by sheer momentum and the swing of the pendulum. The evil nasty Tories worked hard, against popular opinion, to turn the economy round. The Tories set the economy free for people to make it grow. Thatcher made Britain competitive again by encouraging new industries. It wasn’t easy, because success required the destruction of the old subsidised industries which were making things that nobody wanted to buy. The Tories manifestly did not do what Labour is doing now. They did not prop up a motor industry which makes cars which nobody wants. They did not plunge the nation into trillions of pounds of debt. They did not screw the country over in the vain hope of winning the next election.
Ms Cooper: You cannot make a boom happen just by predicting it. You can’t repay debt by borrowing more than before. If you want the economy to have rebounded by the time of the next election you need to take some viciously tough decisions NOW. You have to cut, cut and cut some more. You have to hold your nose and let large parts of the Soviet economy collapse. Let’s start with the bits which are dependent entirely on the state for their existence. Set the economy free by making a bonfire of the controls which you and your allies in Brussels have ensnared us with.
Alternatively: Fuck off so someone else can do it.
And to the Tories: If you want to be the people to sort out this mess then you need to hurry up and get talking about how you are going to do it. Nobody is going to vote you in if you claim you are going to be same same but different. We are past that now. Get your acts together.
* What is it with so many political couples that they are ashamed to take each other’s surnames? Oh.
Glad you posted about words and meanings.
A quick guide to some budget terms and their REAL meaning
What if the banks turn good ? The Govt owns half of them.
I agree with everything you’ve said, btw. Though our manufacturing sector never recovered after Thatcher. I think they could have done much more to facilitate a new way of producing real stuff – I also think they laid waste to many areas which have since become sink areas.
Excellent analysis – Labour are in scorched earth mode and so all Cooper’s worss mean less than zero.
Hee hee, I like the budget terms and their meanings.
As no-one is popping by my place I’m going to huff off for the rest of the evening.
Philipa
How does one get to your place?
BQ this isn’t some sleazy e-dating site! Oh you meant what is the web address…
What pisses me off is the way several Labour stooges referenced the “mistakes of the eighties” without a challenge from the media commentators. Those “mistakes” were desperately needed reform of supply side economics which formed the basis for the economic stability which Labour have so recently ruined.
There were mistakes made in the eighties, but they weren’t anything to do with public sector spending cuts!
Indeed.
That was very well put. It is certainly a way out of this mess. Borrowing money is plainly stupid. It’s like crossing your fingers and hoping, but much worse as it will screw us for years to come. Darling should scrap virtually all Quangos, cut where ever else he can and as you say get rid of red tape stifling entrepreneurial activity. They won’t because they are a central control party. The Tories must adopt a Thatcherite strategy and explain it. Noo Liebour won’t hijack it as it is anathema to their instinctive approach to the destruction of the economy. That’s all they do. They simply don’t do salvage and stimulus. They are the wrecking party not the creating wealth party. ‘Twas always thus.
BQ – I would be honoured for you to pop by my place, as it were. I have to say, Bill that I’m in awe of your writing ability. The poetry you wrote knocked my socks off. And that will be quite enough fawning from me. So please send me an email, or Blue if he would be so kind(?) and I will issue an invite post haste.
Stan, STAN!! Are you the same Stan with whom I have had a discussion with on Mrs Dale’s? About Pompous-pants? Well glad to see your comments here. It’s a fab site isn’t it? Not just interesting posts but great pics. I come here often.