Why are the Tories now standing at their highest polls since the election? This has of course given Ed Miliband’s Blairite enemies, both in the Shadow Cabinet and the PLP, the chance to dump on the leadership which is always the silver lining for them when there’s bad news. They like to claim that, given [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Deficit’
Blairites want to go down the Osborne route
Jan 6th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It’s becoming quite a pattern. The Blairites wait in the wings, biding their time till there’s a slippage in the polls for Labour (caused, bizarrely, this time by Cameron’s Eurozone veto) and then use the opportunity to snipe at the leadership and push their view yet again that Labour should indulge in an orgy of [...]
George Osborne shows he’s learnt nothing from Greece or Ireland
Dec 5th, 2011 by Michael Burke.The Autumn Statement was widely presented as facing up to harsh realities of slower growth, but with George Osborne offering a series of cunning schemes in order to resolve the crisis. And yet, the stagnation of the British economy is a function of government policy, and plans to increase investment by increasing the credit available to smaller firms [...]
Like the Somme, it’s not just the brutality of Osborne’s budget, it’s the futility
Dec 1st, 2011 by Michael Meacher.The sheer nastiness of the Osborne budget takes some getting used to, but it repays closer analysis. To feed the Government’s ideological obsession that not a penny more must be borrowed, the supposed growth projects (which appear very hazy and may take 10 years to come to fruition, if ever) are being funded by public [...]
Osborne digs Britain deeper into the hole
Nov 30th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.It was classic Osborniana yesterday. He’s world-class at mockery, and the more he lacks positive substance in support of his position, the more he deploys the Aunt Sally defence – attack your opponents, caricature their case, knock down arguments they never made, and pretend you’ve won. His performance yesterday was vintage, inviting the old adage [...]
Osborne in Wonderland
Oct 4th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Contrary to Osborne’s claims, the central economic problem in Britain today is not indebtedness, it is lack of demand. If Osborne’s speech yesterday was the clothing by which he presents his future policy over the next year, it would scarcely cover his nakedness. There is nothing there that deals remotely adequately with the only issue [...]
Ed Balls’ plan won’t work without a real jobs & growth strategy
Oct 3rd, 2011 by Michael Meacher.After unveiling his 5 point recovery plan in Liverpool, Ed Balls concluded with a flourish: “I don’t care what they call it, Britain just needs a plan that works”. I agree. Assuming the aim is to turnaround the slide into stagnation by generating sustainable growth which will steadily reduce unemployment, it is worth asking how [...]
What’s the worst the Lib Dems have done?
Sep 20th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.What is it? The worst thing? Lying about student fees? Continuing to sell out on the NHS? Not for me. It’s the economy stupid. Making Labour the scapegoat for the deficit instead of facing up to the problem. Cameron couldn’t have done it without them. And now they’ve bounced along the bottom in the polls [...]
Buffet’s Law and why we need it here
Sep 20th, 2011 by Richard Murphy.Buffett’s law is an idea gaining traction in the USA. Of course it is wrong that billionaires pay less tax on their overall income than their secretarial staff. The question is what do we do about it? There are remarkably simple solutions, all of which suit the tax simplification agenda. Bookmarks Hide Sites
The mother of a crisis is on its way
Aug 19th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.The crisis is coming, and, though the bankers are still raking it in, the shit is really about to hit the fan. I can’t put it better than three wise men, whose concise views I quote at length: Duncan Weldon is terrified by bond yields: We have falling equity prices, falling commodity prices, record low [...]
