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% [...]
Posts under ‘Public Spending’
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 [...]
Cut Trident, not jobs, homes, and health
Jan 17th, 2013 by Jeremy Corbyn.This afternoon, the House of Commons debates Britain’s nuclear deterrent: Jeremy Corbyn puts the case against the replacement of Trident in the context of austerity. An incoming Labour government will be faced with massive expectations and demands of jobs for young people, increased health expenditure, huge demands on the benefits budget, student fees, and infrastructure [...]
The nasty party does its dirty work on the welfare state
Jan 11th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The power of the right-wing media – and the reason why it needs to be cut back to provide a democracy with a framework of balanced reporting – has again been put on show by its persistent fusillade of vilifying propaganda against the jobless and low-paid to assist their Tory government allies in pinning the [...]
Investment slump greater than whole loss of British GDP
Dec 11th, 2012 by Michael Burke.The latest estimate for Britain’s GDP growth in the 3rd quarter of 2012 left the initial estimate unchanged with growth of 1% in the quarter. Boosted by a series of special factors to do with the prior Jubilee holiday, the Olympics and other events, most forecasts suggest that this will give way to much slower growth [...]
Over 40 UK Uncut actions target Starbucks over tax avoidance & cuts impact on women
Dec 9th, 2012 by Newsdesk.Growing public anger at Starbucks was clear yesterday as over 40 of their shops across the UK- including in Liverpool, Cardiff, Bristol and Shrewsbury- were targeted by the anti-cuts direct action network, UK Uncut. In central London a creche and women’s refuge were set up in Starbuck’s flagship stores, and in Birmingham people slept in [...]
Osborne’s Autumn Statement won’t rid Britain of his ideological hang-ups
Dec 5th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Today’s mini-budget statement is really Osborne’s last chance to fix Britain’s dire economy before the election. The IFS has just predicted that austerity will last till at least 2018 – a lost decade like Japan. The re-balancing of the economy, the’March of the Makers’, which Osborne lauded has simply not happened. Neither the government’s Funding [...]
Labour must reject austerity at the Autumn Statement
Nov 27th, 2012 by Ben Folley.Ahead of next week’s Autumn Statement by George Osborne, the OECD reports today that the Chancellors ‘deep fiscal consolidation continues to drag down growth’ and that ‘unemployment is expected to rise slightly in 2013’. At the same time the report is supportive of the ongoing austerity policy, specifically backing the increase in the pension age and [...]
Europe needs a citizens’ revolution, declare Lafontaine and Mélenchon
Nov 23rd, 2012 by Newsdesk.The following declaration was yesterday issued by Oskar Lafontaine, who has previously been German finance minister, chair of the SPD and co-chair of Die Linke (Left Party), and Jean Luc Mélenchon, the Presidential Candidate for France’s Front du Gauche: We note with dismay the use made of the European Union as a tool of widespread austerity. [...]
Just how left wing is Sinn Féin?
Nov 5th, 2012 by David Osler.There is a political party in the United Kingdom – and I use the geographical expression advisedly – content to serve as junior partner in a rightwing-dominated coalition committed to austerity, reductions in public spending, privatisation, the PFI and tax cuts for business. And no, I am not talking about the Liberal Democrats. Unfortunately, such [...]
