You must give credit to Osborne – he’s a real street-wise barrow boy who knows how to concoct a story and then hammer it home with such chutzpah and if necessary aggression that his line becomes the accepted fact, when even a moment’s thought exposes it as nonsense. The line he’s put across is that […]
Posts Tagged ‘Deficit’
What is the difference between Tory and Labour policy on the deficit?
Jan 27th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Osborne has made clear he intends to enforce further enormous cuts in public expenditure (£25bn for starters in the next Parliament) in order to achieve a budget surplus by 2018-9. Previously Labour had been committed by Ed Balls to match Tory spending plans only to 2015-6. But now in his speech to the Fabians on […]
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Osborne’s Grand Plan to ‘trap’ Labour over deficit can be easily derailed
Jan 13th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Osborne loves to preen himself that he is clever enough to force Labour into a trap by which he can win the next election. His latest idea is that by announcing (as he did last Monday) that he will eliminate the structural deficit by 2020 and this will require a further £25bn of cuts on […]
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Only public investment can save Britain from semi-permanent austerity
Nov 17th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.There are four reasons why the future of the UK economy, both internally and externally, does not look good. No sustainable recovery can occur till these four obstacles have been cleared, and of that there is no sign. First, the collapse in business investment has been devastating: it is still 25% below its pre-crash level. […]
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The Alice in Wongaland economy
Aug 17th, 2013 by Ann Pettifor.by Ann Pettifor and Jeremy Smith Ann was on the BBC’s Today programme this week where she was asked to comment on the retail sales numbers. We thought we would share with our readers some of the data that underpins the “Alice in Wongaland” theory of the economy. But first that quote from the Chancellor about the need for […]
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Ed Miliband got egged for not having the guts to stand up to austerity
Aug 16th, 2013 by Ellie Mae OHagan.Now that cuts are biting, people are desperate for an alternative, but Labour didn’t have the courage to provide it. Having eggs pelted at you seems almost a rite of passage for politicians, and if that’s the case Ed Miliband must be feeling pretty ministerial these days. Miliband fell victim to his second egging yesterday afternoon, […]
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Don’t trust an Osborne product: read the small print
Jun 28th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Osborne’s spending review is a bewildering mixture of cash changes, inflation-adjusted comparisons and different time-periods in order to suit his political interests. Discounting this trickery is rewarding for getting at the truth. The real facts are that public borrowing is still expected to be at £96bn in 2015-6, which marks the death knell for all […]
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Why is Labour so reticent about spelling out the true position on debt?
May 20th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.debtIf there’s one thing that haunts Labour, however much the Tories are determined to commit hara kiri, it is the accusation that ‘Labour was responsible for all this mess in the first place’ by gross over-spending. Since this is not true, why doesn’t Labour refute it at every opportunity? Just before the crash in 2007-8, […]
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Austerity isn’t supposed to help the economy – but to protect the rich
Mar 11th, 2013 by Mike Hedges.With Osborne’s fourth budget approaching, the Tory austerity programme is clearly in trouble. The news that a majority of people now think the cuts are not working is bad news for the Chancellor. This follows the stinging rebuke delivered to David Cameron on Friday by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) which rebutted claims […]
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What should be done to prevent a triple-dip recession?
Nov 12th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Despite the welcome (and unexpected) rise in GDP in the last quarter, there is still no getting away from the fact that UK GDP has stagnated over 4 quarters, is still more than 3% below its level at the start of 2008, and is widely expected to slip back again over this winter and probably […]
