Friday 30 April 2010

What was said at the economy debate?

I only have seen highlights; from what I have seen though a massive side-step away from any admittance of the truth of what is to come.

Two things now strike me: Labour, having had a successful scorched earth policy, are trying to throw the election.

Secondly, The Tories are going to win on Labour's terms - when they have to enact horrible policy they may end up hated for a generation. Will Cameron's be lucky enough to find his own Falklands before his term runs out?

10 comments:

Antisthenes said...

My sentiments exactly, government is a poisoned chalice for any party. Let Broon remain PM in coalition with the Lib-Dems so they can reap what he has sown.

Old BE said...

Last night was the first time I have heard Cam making a convincing small state argument!

Clegg and Brown were both all about how to divide up the cake. Cam said we need to take tough action in order to get the cake growing again.

FTAC Watch said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hairy Arsed Bloke said...

The way for the Conservatives to handle this is to bring criminal charges against former cabinet ministers. I believe that the behaviour of Blair, Brown, et al can be considered to be treason.

The traditional British punishment for treason was to be hung, drawn, and quartered. I would pay serious money to see their public execution live, but I would be happy to watch it down the pub on the big screen like we do the football.

In the UK it should be on free-to-air prime time telly, but for the overseas markets the PPV rights would bring in plenty of much needed funds.

A recording in HD and surround sound should form part of the state opening of parliament so that future MP understand what will happen to them if they repeat Labour’s behaviour.

roym said...

HAB,
how about in 3D too!

theres no reason for Cameron to end up being hated as long as things arent done in a high handed manner, much as BQ suggested yesterday. Dare i say it, he could start by parking that IHT handout for a couple of years?

Andrew B said...

Clegg made good points, spoke to the audience and the viewers.

Dave started to copy some of Cleggs habits after about 10 mins.

Brown just rolled out tractor stats and mis-information that might appeal to his core vote.

Hung parliament here we come.

Now, is that a bad thing?

Whoever wins will start calling the recession the brown recession - like black monday, but stickier

A coalition government can firmly label all the new taxes as Brown's taxes - the ones he was too scared / incompetent to implement.
A coalition government will also not be tied into a particular party name.

The new taxes will cause strikes and demonstrations, but in 5 years time, the brown tax rises that were put in place by a coalition will not be overly pinnable on any one party.

The BOE governor is wrong.

Timbo614 said...

What was said was a regurgitation of what had been said before. In Brown's case it was a regurgitation every 5 minutes of the same sentence "Cameron will steal your tax credits". In Nick's Case it was "I'll put £700 in your back pocket". Cameron's was "No they won't or can't but I can with National Insurance scrapping".

Ho hum.

No detail at all of how we all pay back the £90,000 we, the actual taxpayers, are each supposed to owe someone, possible ourselves. At Brown's advertised rate it's probably infinity as each tax payer will get less and less money. At Clegg's rate it's 128 years (Ignoring the interest) with interest infinity makes a comeback. For Cameroon's rate to make any sense we ALL have to sell our houses and buy each others' so we can pay some Stamp duty. Those with a house worth under 1M. can stay put.

I suggest that we sell a house to each of the 600,000 "illegals" that were mentioned at £1M. each. That's half(!) the country's Debt problem solved and now they are registered and paying tax and interest! Luverly jubbly :)

CityUnslicker said...

Thanks for the comments. Andrew B, many people in the US blame Obama for the recession and have forgotten who George Bush was...time moves on and the focus is on the current.

Budgie said...

CU you are right. Cameron has failed to adequately blame Brown and failed to explain the full deficit and debt horrors (caused by Brown).

Why does Cameron do it? Just like his "cast iron" gaffe, he has not prepared the public beforehand so he will get the blame. I despair at the man's stupidity - or is he a closet Brown acolyte?

Andrew B said...

They are not talking about 'brown recession/ brown tax rises' because no-one wants to scare the punters.

If you talk about the brown recession, you will be asked about the billions you need to find to fill the gap. They have decided that scaring people loses votes.

Of course, not being open and honest also loses votes, but if they are all dishonest in the same way, there is no net loser on this issue.

Once the election is over, they will go through the books.

At that point I expect something will happen like

- growth figures revised down
- the ONS decides that PFI liabilities count in the Defecit to some extent
- Unfunded pension liabilities are counted (more likely)
- fill in your own item of bad economic news

At that point whoever wins will turn round and say

OMG! this bunch of greek accountants have lied to us all for 13 years, things were always pants under Labour, your memories of smaller class sizes are false. The debt is twice as big and the deficit black hole twice as black.
And it is ALL BROWNS FAULT (repeat ad nauseum for 4-10 years).

This will happen after the election because there is an advantage to be gained by whoever wins at that point.

I don't know why Obama did not do the same, it is recognised as one of his big missed opportunities (by the economist), I think it was because at the time he was trying to work on a genuinely non-partisan basis.
Whoever wins on the 6th will make no such mistake - even if it is the Labour party.