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), […]
Posts Tagged ‘Alternative Economic Strategy’
When will Labour force a crisis vote on the economy in the Commons?
Jan 28th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.It seems almost unbelievable that the UK economy is still 3.5% below its level 5 years after the financial crisis began, when the US, Germany, France and almost all other major countries are now well above their pre-recession level, and that the UK economy has now contracted in 4 of the last 5 quarters and […]
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The class politics of CLASS
Nov 8th, 2012 by David Osler.After decades in which the very word ‘class’ has been virtually unmentionable in polite Labour Party circles, the symbolism behind the acronym that arises from launching a body under the name of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies is entirely obvious. Even some of those sympathetic to its birth argue privately that the title […]
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We won’t win with more of the same
Sep 29th, 2012 by Ben Folley.Ahead of Labour’s conference, interventions by Polly Toynbee and Ed Balls today offer confused and dangerous strategies if Labour is planning to win in 2015. To do so, it must challenge both parties of government on their economic record and, having done so, be confident in breaking the austerity consensus and offering an alternative vision.
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The UK’s budget deficit is rising not falling
Jul 24th, 2012 by Michael Burke.The latest public sector borrowing data shows that the UK budget deficit is widening once more. Indeed despite a series of accounting adjustments which obscure the true picture, it is clear that the underlying trend is also towards rising, not falling deficits.
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To consolidate its lead Labour now needs to correct 3 major mistakes
Jul 23rd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.With business leaders, even the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, now slamming Osborne’s policy for indecision, equivocation, short-termism and political manipulation, Labour must now be poised to take a decisive lead in the crucial area of economic policy. But if it is going to consolidate a lead which at present is much […]
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Another road for Europe: an appeal
Jun 30th, 2012 by Newsdesk.The following appeal has been launched by a variety of politicians, activists and academics across Europe. Europe is in crisis because it has been hijacked by neoliberalism and finance. In the last twenty years – with a persistent democratic deficit – the meaning of the European Union has increasingly been reduced to a narrow view […]
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Which way for Labour?
Jun 26th, 2012 by Len McCluskey.As the Levenson inquiry is the latest to show, and the MPs expenses scandal proved earlier, we have an out-of-touch, self-satisfied, mutual back-scratching elite who look after themselves while ignoring ordinary people as much as possible. Maybe we could put up with that if this elite took the right decisions on behalf of us. But they don’t. Everything from the […]
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Hollande and the French economy (part 1)
May 16th, 2012 by Andy Newman.Enthusiasm for François Hollande’s new government in France is understandable, as it provides a popular mandate for an economic alternative to austerity, and a programme for economic growth. As Trevor Martin exhorts in his recent Tribune article “Let us follow where Hollande leads”. Michael Meacher sketches an outline of what Hollande’s policies would mean translated […]
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As Hollande meets Merkel, when will Left in UK take on monetarists?
May 14th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It is almost incredible that after failure upon failure the monetarists have still not yet been run out of town. Even after the decisive anti-austerity presidential election in France a week ago, the ejection of all austerity-accommodating parties in Greece, and now the drubbing of the German Conservatives in North-Rhine Westphalia, it seems the best […]
