Monday 28 September 2015

Labour 's Self Harm Diary, Day 2



Day one seemed a bit boring so it was skipped.

Labour, having elected numpties and loons of such gross error, are having a party conference to celebrate this in some distant land.

Today will be more fun. Their unreconstructed head of finance, John McDonnell, is to make his barnstorming entrance to the world at large. He is remembered for date for being nice to the IRA and once throwing the mace in the House of Commons on the floor.

Now though he will have a whole new world to speak to, the media will be attentive and I predict it will all go to his head. As a massive Communist, it will be just too much fun for him to berate capitalism and the world as a whole.

Lots and lots of juicy policies to raise taxes on the evil rich (who, in Marx's world lest we forget are, bourgeoisie middle class too, not just your evil public school posho's).

And how exciting this will be for about a day or so whilst the newspapers have something different to write about. I think it may take some time to settle into the public mind; but I can't remember and election ever won on the promise of massive tax rises for class envy reasons alone.

Finally, the moron that is 'tax expert' Richard Murphy, may get quoted and feted. This has to be the largest piece of self harm for so poor is Mr Murphy's analysis of, well, anything, that it last about as long as a newspaper on a bonfire. To see him put upon the pedestal will be of great interest.

So, times are a-changing, for a little while at least....

11 comments:

Oswald Thake said...

Poor Mr. Murphy - you and Tim Worstall, too! He really is a prat, though!

My2ndMondayName said...

@CU - youre turning into a Daily Mash style pastiche of yourself.

Jan said...

He sounded quite good on the Today prog this morning. Agree the power will probably go to his head though. They're talking about a Tobin tax again which is an interesting idea and he wants access to the Treasury models to assess his proposals. Not sure the civil servants will want to play ball.

CityUnslicker said...

hat is a massive compliment Monday name, thanks! :o)

I hate the Tobin tax idea, its not like we all love stamp duty taxes everywhere else and the Fund Managers will use it as an excuse to take even more fees whilst blaming the Government.

DtP said...

As with a lot of these things it's not so much the actions but the responses and i'm starting to feel a bit sorry for Francis Osborne - she's had the boy under her feet since late July and now she may be lumbered with him having sod all to do for a couple of years. There's not much work doing for a strategist when he's just watching car crashes all day.

I'm firmly in the Corbyn camp in that Labour almost had no choice - they have to reach perdition and this guy's a purgative with the most expedient effect - Burnham & Cooper would have been the ICT assistants keeping the induced comatose party on life support even though it was a vegetable whereas Corbyn, well, he's like Dr Kevorkian ready with his bucket.

Demetrius said...

The trouble is that HMS Tory will have to weather some bad storms. Not only is the hull a bit leaky, but the Captain is inexpert in navigation. As for the Purser cum First Mate......

CityUnslicker said...

dreadful speech I saw a few bits. Attacking Vodafone and Starbucks like its 2008. Attacking the Bank of England (er..that is my story!) for doing what banks should do. Saying ya-boo at globalisation and Tories.

wet lettuce assualts in actualite.

Ryan said...

Oh joy, in their efforts to appear to be a more credible alternative to the Tories, they are trying to downplay their leftist credentials and stand on much the same platform as Miliband.

Consequently the leftists that pushed Corbyn into the leadership will tear up they new memberships and return to the green Party whilst the history of the Corbyn team will make it distinctly unpalatable to a public that has such things as mortgages, jobs, pensions to worry about.

I'm guessing that if Corbyn makes it as far as 2020 Labour will be lucky if they poll as high as 25% of the vote.

Anonymous said...

"dreadful speech I saw a few bits. Attacking Vodafone and Starbucks like its 2008."

I saw the same speech - in 2010. 10/10 for consistency though.

Traits of financial imperialism - we'll tell other countries what to do and how to run their tax and legal affairs. Why stop at the UK

andrew said...


Listened to him on Today this AM

Some nice little memes that I am sure we will hear a lot more of

- QE didnt cause inflation last time so it won't with 'Peoples QE'

- Tax subsidies to companies will be reviewed and if they arent doing enough training, the subsidy will be removed

- change the BOE mandate to include 'prosperity'

Anonymous said...

QE has caused massive asset-price inflation -- house prices and equity shares being the main areas, not just yachts and Old Master paintings and vintage motor cars.
The only reason it hasn't leaked through into general consumer prices is because a lot of QE is currently sitting in the balance sheets of central and clearing banks, in the form of bonds purchased with the ex-nihilo electronic money.
"Peoples' QE" will mean Weimar-style inflation, and we all know how that ended up ...