I just listened to Nick Clegg on the BBC's World at One. I felt he was trying to be honest about the financial crisis the UK is facing. I don't understand what the deficit is we are all supposed to halve, who it is owed to, what it was spent on. I have a feeling that Labour's plans are not as Neil Kinnock put it in a letter to the Guardian, well "measured" and the Tories, I feel, are positioning not levelling.
This follows what I thought was a clear performance by Clegg on the Today programme on Saturday. One point struck me in particular. The Lib Dems are often very nervous and possessive about their liberalism and a strange kind of 'we are THE ONLY pluralists' is the result!
But this time Clegg focussed on the end of "the duopoly". He said that whereas in 1951 only 2 per cent didn't vote for the two main parties, now nearly 40 per cent do not. Nationalists and Greens seem to be included in this. He positioned himself as part of something wider and more open than being THE ONLY third party. This is a tremendously important development, potentially, and very welcome.
And while I'm into praising them, Chris Huhne was excellent on Newsnight on Friday. He got the alarmist, don't we need party leaders to be dictators line, at the prospect of Clegg and Co having to take the result of any negotiation over the future of a hung parliament to their colleagues and even - horror - a special partty conference. Huhne was rubust, "surprised at their surprise". This is how parties behave in countries better governed than our own!
Comments
Anthony,
You seem to be more confused than usual. You not well ??
If you don't know what the deficit is and what it IS (not 'was', it is present tense not past) being spent on, how do you know if Cleggy was being honest or not ? You aint got a clue - by your own admission.
Again, how so ? Labour's plans are pure fantasy. As to the Tories far from 'positioning' they actually have a handle on the problem. In simple terms the Government is borrowing one Pound in every four that it spends. One assumes that Mrs Barnett runs the household accounts and so may give you a few lessons in basic economics. I will advise her to cut your pocket money.
Owly - it's depressing, this temptation to retreat to modelling on the scale of domestic probity and the Micawber principle:
The Government's Deficit is the same thing as the non-government sector's savings. The Public Debt is the accumulation of past Deficits; it is the same thing as the non-government sector's Net Wealth (see Wynne Godley's "Monetary Economics", 2007). Reducing the Deficit can only mean a reduction in the non-government sector's savings (yes, that does mean hard times for households).
The competition between our leading politicians as to who can be the hardest Deficit Terrorist is to be deplored. Clegg is not being honest, he is merely pandering to ignorant Deficit Hysteria. Isn't it about time that the "left" started boning up on post keynesian economics and the way a fiat money system actually works? Try Professor William Mitchell's site at Newcastle Australia (google "billy blog") or Randall Wray's site "Economic Perspectives from Kansas".
It's all straightforward, surely? Vast sums have been given to the bankers to cover their incompetence and allow them to give themselves huge bonuses; the rich control the newspapers and will howl if they are taxed; we cannot - unlike other countries - be allowed deficit spending. Therefore it follows as the night the day thay working people must be beggared and a second Great Depression brought on. We're all agreed about that, aren't we? After all, Michael Foot wore a very expensive coat to the Cenotaph, and it looked like a duffel coat so there you are, even if the Labour Party used to get more votes back then!
'As to the Tories far from 'positioning' they actually have a handle on the problem.'
After all it was the policies which they implemented in the 1980's and 1990's that led to this economic disaster, with their new converts the Labour Party beating the same drum.... remember what we were fed during their period in office about trickle down, and deregulation.
We now have not just trickle up but hoover up as the bankers stuff their wallets with our money before the final collapse.
So we should now trust the Tories to sort the mess out........ what a vain hope.
Tony Curzon Price, oD's editor-in-chief has a clear overview here that helps clarify some fundamentals :-)
A simple fact, during the last thirty five years there has been one party that has taken the country to the brink of financial ruin. THE LABOUR PARTY, the first time was under James Calaghan, when we had to call in the IMF, as we were financialy bankrupt as a nation, and this time been the second, as we have a huge deficit, almost the same size as Greece and growing by about 50 million a day.
The interest on our deficit is larger than the whole of the UK defence budget for one year.
Post new comment