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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Growth’
Anyone seen any growth?
Jun 29th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Fortunately U-turns are a favourite ploy of Cameronian government, courtesy of the NHS reforms, criminal justice discounts, forest sell-offs, housing benefit cuts, Libyan interventionism, and maybe soon public sector pensions. That’s lucky because one is soon going to be needed over Osborne’s decrepit policy on growth – or rather non-growth. The economy having flat-lined over [...]
The Budget: a vehicle for growth with the engine missing
Mar 24th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.As is usually the case, this was a very political Budget. It will change the economic future of this country hardly at all. The purpose of this Budget was camouflage to distract attention from the Great Axe that is about to fall within the next two weeks and to give the impression that Britain has [...]
Falling real wages, and still the bastards whinge about inflation
Feb 18th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Mervyn King recently pointed out that real UK wages in 2011 “are likely to be no higher than they were in 2005… One has to go back to the 1920s to find a time when real wages fell over a period of six years.” This, of course underestimates the drastic fall in living standards, since [...]
Put growth and jobs first
Jan 25th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Ed Balls lost no time in attacking the government when the latest figures emerged showing a contraction of the economy in the last quarter, urging them to “urgently re-think their reckless plan to cut the deficit too far and too fast and start putting growth and jobs first.” Osborne’s reaction, however, is “we’re not going [...]
Growth slowdown bad news for Tories
Jan 4th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Not a Happy New Year for Osborne – a steady trickle of bad economic news is testing even quicker than expected whether his strategy can survive . Even before the big ticket cuts kick in and VAT at 20% went live at midnight, costing an extra £389 a year to the average family, three bits of unwelcome [...]
A budget for decline
Mar 23rd, 2010 by Michael Meacher.As is usually the case, this is a very political Budget. It will change the economic future of this country hardly at all. The purpose of this Budget is camouflage to distract attention from the Great Axe that is about to fall within the next two weeks and to give the impression that Britain has [...]
