Last week’s YouGov poll, commissioned and published by Progress, showed that, while Labour was accepted as the “nice” party, the Tories were seen as more ready to take the “tough” decisions. The result was interpreted as an endorsement of the need for such “tough” decisions and therefore as bad news for Ed Miliband and an [...]
Posts under ‘Public Spending’
Is Barking becoming the new Tower Hamlets?
Apr 2nd, 2013 by Patrick Collins.Barking Labour Party went through a very difficult period in 2008 to 2010 when it saw a lot of previous councillors step down or be deselected. Some of these councillors that found themselves deselected decided to stand as independent Labour but all were unsuccessful. As someone who grew up in Barking I was glad to [...]
Austerity isn’t supposed to help the economy – but to protect the rich
Mar 11th, 2013 by Mike Hedges.With Osborne’s fourth budget approaching, the Tory austerity programme is clearly in trouble. The news that a majority of people now think the cuts are not working is bad news for the Chancellor. This follows the stinging rebuke delivered to David Cameron on Friday by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which rebutted claims [...]
You’ve never had it so bad
Mar 4th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The consequences of the government’s insane, counter-productive, self-defeating orgy of endless cutting are now beginning to be evaluated with some clarity for a decade hence. The Resolution Foundation, which specialises in income analysis, has calculated that on present plans families on low or average incomes will be no better off in 2017 than in 1997, [...]
Killing a few less and doing it in a slower and more kindly fashion is no answer
Mar 1st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Eastleigh was never going to be a Labour win, but it would have done a good deal better if people knew what Labour really stood for compared to the other parties, particularly on the economy. The one central issue on which all others turn is how to handle the deficit, yet here Labour continues to represent merely [...]
Grillonomics: the ideas behind the Italy’s no.1 political party
Feb 26th, 2013 by Tom Gill.Beppe Grillo and his Five Star Movement have emerged as the single largest party in Italy’s elections held 24-25 February. But what do we know of his policies? Here’s a recent analysis by economist Vladimiro Giacché which originally appeared in Italian at MicroMega. In dealing with the economic programme of the Five Star Movement we should [...]
On this day: Labour’s great rebellion against Churchill and its own leaders
Feb 18th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Seventy years ago today, Labour MPs mounted the biggest rebellion of the second world war against the wartime coalition government’s reluctance to implement the Beveridge report. The overwhelming majority of the parliamentary Labour Party voted against its own leadership – coalition cabinet members Clement Attlee, Herbert Morrison and Ernie Bevin who had pleaded with them [...]
If the god Janus were an economist, he would work for the IMF
Feb 12th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.In July 2010, Prof Victoria Chick and I said: “fiscal consolidation does not ‘slash’ the debt, but contributes to it.” Last month, the IMF said: “we find that forecasters significantly underestimated the increase in unemployment and the decline in private consumption and investment associated with fiscal consolidation.” In our report (The economic consequences of Mr Osborne), [...]
Is Osborne bent on perma-austerity till 2018…or 2023?
Jan 27th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.It’s difficult to credit that Osborne at Davos, with advance knowledge of the last quarter growth figures, could say “We have credibility and flexibility and have been using that flexibility”. His policies are credible with virtually nobody, are remorselessly rigid, and show not a glimmer of the flexibility needed. The latest growth figure of -0.3% [...]
The death of the High Street
Jan 18th, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.To lose one household name during a period of supposed economic recovery is unfortunate, but to lose three is careless. With the collapse of Jessops, HMV, and Blockbuster approximately 10,000 people face a very uncertain future. So what’s going on? If you read the BBC’s reporting, it’s all just a case of bad management and outmoded business [...]
