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Cameron gets rattled: where’s the leadership quality he like to boast of?

Cameron RattledCameron is alarmingly showing increasing signs of losing his cool. He does so quite regularly at PMQs when he gets caught out and his face blushes puce. He did so again under fire from Paxman in the recent TV contest between him and Miliband when, unlike at PMQs, he didn’t have the privilege of the last word and had to face repeated questions drilling down on controversial issues. And now, after a poor start to the Tory election campaign, he’s at it again, tossing out wild rhetoric unjustified by any evidence. He accused Labour of “over £3,000 in higher taxes for every working family to pay for more welfare and out of control spending; debt will rise and jobs will be lost as a result”. It’s worth unpacking this because every one of these allegations he bandied about is wrong.

The IFS immediately denounced the £3,000 figure on the grounds that it was a cumulative increase over a 5-year parliamentary period, not an annual increase, and that it mischievously assumed that the whole burden fell on 17 million working households, not on the total of 28 million UK households. There is no evidence it would be used to “pay for more welfare” as opposed to reducing the deficit or kickstarting the economy into sustainable growth with more jobs, higher wages, and bigger government tax receipts to help pay off the deficit faster. As to “out of control spending”, in Labour’s 11 years before the crash (1997-2008) the biggest deficit was 3.3% of GDP, whereas Thatcher-Major racked up deficits larger than that in 10 out of their 18 years. So which is the profligate party? It’s a no-brainer.

Cameron’s also got some gall to say that “debt will rise” when because Osborne has contracted the economy for 5 years and contracted wages by 8-10%, government tax receipts have also now inevitably contracted, pushing the deficit up, not down. By comparison, Alistair Darling through his expansionary budgets in 2009-10 brought down the deficit sharply from a peak of £157bn to £118bn in just 2 years. Five years later under Osborne’s austerity budgets the deficit is still nearly £100bn this year.

Cameron’s once again resorting to personal mud-slinging by calling Miliband a “weak” leader is another sign that the Tory leader is rattled. Who was it who stopped BSkyB being handed over to Murdoch which Cameron had aided and abetted? Who was it who championed Leveson when the Tory tabloids after the hacking scandal tried to stop the victims getting any redress? And who was it who, defying Cameron (and Obama) over launching a missile attack on Syria, actually stopped another was in the Middle East? It certainly wasn’t Cameron

Image credit: BBC

One Comment

  1. Barry Ewart says:

    And who stood up to the public utilities?
    And Cameron ran away from one-to-one debates!
    And who is going to force companies to offer those on zero hours a full-time job after 12 weeks!
    Miliband 6 Cameron 0.
    Labour should keep reminding the public of these 6 points.
    Oh and if you vote Tory you will be voting to allow fracking under your house!
    And if the Tories get in they may bring in £15 charges to see GP (they had appointed a Tory Advisor on just this).
    Time for the left to vote Labour even if it is with a peg on your nose!

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