What has the horror at Grenfell Tower to do with economists? And what have the lives lost at Grenfell Tower to do with the government’s budget deficit? A great deal, I will argue here. When on Twitter a few days ago I raised the issue of the shared responsibility that economists have for this ghastly […]
Posts Tagged ‘Austerity’
Tories want to drive living standards lower. Corbyn wants to end austerity
May 31st, 2017 by Tom O Leary.This article first appeared on Socialist Economic Bulletin. During the current crisis the UK has experienced the longest-ever recorded fall in living standards. The biggest part of that fall is not the cuts to government spending, even though these have had severe effects. Instead the largest factor contributing to the fall in living standards is the […]
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We must unite to end Tory austerity
Oct 5th, 2016 by Steve Turner.In recent years, “Economic credibility” has laughingly been defined as an economic policy that has delivered neither sustainable economic growth nor improved living standards for the overwhelming majority of people. Indeed, the Tories’ austerity has even failed on their own very narrow definition of success of reducing the debt to GDP ratio.
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Corbyn sets out vision to transform Britain’s economy
Sep 19th, 2016 by Newsdesk.Last week Jeremy Corbyn set out his vision for the British economy at a major speech at Bloomberg. Railing against the austerity economy that has failed so many, from workers at Sports Direct to those on zero hour contracts, the Labour leader pledged to create an economy built on investment, tax justice and harnessing the […]
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UNISON backs Corbyn
Jul 10th, 2016 by Andrew Berry.UNISON’s National Labour Link met Friday in Newcastle. This is a gathering of UNISON delegates that pay into the Labour Link that will decide the unions policy in the Labour Party. Whilst most of the packed agenda was already set weeks ago there was only really one topic on people’s minds, namely the prolonged coup. Members […]
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Our understaffed underfunded NHS is the result of government ideology
Jul 10th, 2016 by Diane Abbott.Jeremy Hunt had few answers from the barrage of cross bench concern this week’s parliamentary debates on the NHS funding and the impact of Brexit on the NHS. When asked what he was doing to ensure that the NHS gets the £350million a week that it was promised during the Leave referendum campaign, the Secretary […]
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Good riddance IDS: long may this internal warfare continue
Mar 19th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.When you’re the head of a department that has meted out cruel and inhumane treatment to disabled people, when you’ve sat in the Commons and nodded through cut after sanction regime after tightened eligibility criteria, at what point do you say enough and call time over your complicity in these proceedings? Does one draw a […]
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The boom, not the slump, is the time for austerity
Mar 15th, 2016 by Ann Pettifor.The following is a letter by Professor John Weeks and Ann Pettifor, published today, 15th March 2016 in The Guardian. Andrew Harrop’s article on John McDonnell’s public borrowing for investment points out its improvement on the chancellor’s deficit obsession (John McDonnell’s new fiscal rule is strong, but it’s no election winner, The Guardian, 11 March). […]
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John McDonnell’s very political economics
Mar 15th, 2016 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.What have they been putting in John McDonnell’s coffee? According to some, John’s embrace of fiscal responsibility, tight spending, and deficit reduction is a surrender to “the capitalist parasites“. And proving you cannot please some people no matter what you say, there have been criticisms from the right of the party arguing that his economics […]
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Labour right-wing still in the austerity dead end
Mar 15th, 2016 by Michael Burke.Rachel Reeves, a former Labour shadow secretary for work and pensions, has produced a short note for Progress which has been hailed in the right wing media, and by the Labour right, as ‘an alternative Budget’. The New Statesman was perhaps the most excitable, describing Reeves as the shadow chancellor in waiting. All of this […]
