Whatever happened to Tory triangulation?
I thought the Tory gameplan had been to triangulate and steal the centre ground from Labour. This would imply them outflanking Labour to the left by proposing a more vigorous fiscal stimulus package than us. Instead we just get George Osborne squeaking away like someone who swallowed the collected works of Sir Keith Joseph and Milton Friedman. Triangulation, compassionate Conservatism, new Tories, all gone.
Same old Tories. Same old monetarism. Same old refusal to do anything to curb unemployment or help industry or the most vulnerable in society.
Thank goodness they are not in government now. Their non-response to the current situation would turn a crisis into a catastrophe.
posted by Luke Akehurst at 4:50 pm
16 Comments:
bravo luke! you are adsolutely right x
5:20 pm, November 24, 2008
Nice to see utter tosh being written again.
The national debt will need to be paid off right around the time all those students with top-up fee debts and student loans are exiting Uni. Boy are they going to be happy when they're working minimum wage jobs with £30k+ of debt and the excesses of Nu-Lab tax'n'spend to pay back as well - that's before they're on the property ladder and before they have a family.
Thanks Nu-Labour - you've made us work longer, for less, with less chance of being able to afford to live within our means.
Incidentally Luke your grasp of Keynesian economics tickles me pink. Keynes did say you need public spending to get through a 'downturn' (or 'recession' as us non PC, non Nu-Lab thinking drones say). But in the 'upturn' (or 'boom' as Brown would say - of course bust does not exist - *allow for laughter*) you save the proceeds to spend in the 'downturn'. A wholly and utterly different proposition than spending while in debt as we presently are.
Monetarism isn't the bogey man you make out. Monetarist theory encourages fiscal responsbility, something which of course Nu-Lab only has a passing understanding of.
When Nu-Labour is finally done politically, I sincerely hope that the economic advisers of the last ten years are brought before a renewed international economic system and tried for money-crimes.
Public investment should NOT come at the expense of fiscal responsibility. £118bn of national debt in the next few years...that'll go nicely on top of my £17,000 student loan, my inability to get on the property ladder and a shrinking job market.
True to Labour form, you've run the country's economy into the ground. Bra-effing-vo!
5:44 pm, November 24, 2008
Anonymous
You obviously talk tosh yourself.
It is you that has a lack of understanding of Economics.
The current situation IS a result of the Moneterist Bogey Man: Unbridled Capitalism.
It is Margaret Thatcher and her deciples who need to be brought to book for our economic crisis. They are its very source and creator.
5:52 pm, November 24, 2008
Luke you are right, the Tories have given up the centre ground and retreated back to (what once was) the stockbroker belt.
The effect of VAT, lower rates of income tax, extra child benefit and the thresholds will help working people.
6:02 pm, November 24, 2008
James WT - Monetarism is not unbridled capitalism you economically illiterate champagne socialist!
Monetarism = a macroeconomic school of thought that emphasizes1) long-run monetary neutrality, 2) short-run monetary nonneutrality, 3) the distinction between real and nominal interest rates, and 4) the role of monetary aggregates in policy analysis.
Unbridled capitalism is allowing the market to 'let rip' with no constraints - a policy equally followed by ten years of Nu-Lab rule. Don't allow yourself to fooled into thinking this was the nasty Tories fault - they left gold reserves and a falling national debt at your disposal...you proceeded to sp*nk money up the wall with the due attention of a heroine addict on methadone.
Incidentally lack of regulation - Nu-Lab created the toothless wonder the FSA and fat lot of good it's done too. According to Peston 'New Labour has done more to ensure the super-rich's status and those of the City than any other administration.'
We'll skip the fact that on Nu-Lab's watch social mobility is down (no no no chucking money at the problem isn't going to solve it!)
P.S monetarism is not the bogeyman since we've been living under a fiscal administration - doofus. get you're facts right. Fiscal policy dictated by tax and spend policies. Monetarist dictated by interest rates.
Nu-Lab's attempt at a half way house worked well for the first term when Brown stuck to prudent spending levels and then allowed himself to get punch drunk off profits from selling gold reserves.
Comparing monetarist policies to unbridled capitalism is absurd. That's like me calling fiscal policies purest communism.
Go back to school hippy.
6:22 pm, November 24, 2008
Same old Luke. Same old Labour.
You just happened to miss that the PSBR is now going up to £130bn - and very possibly £150bn if it is accepted that there's isn't a cat-in-hell's chance of the economy growing at Darling's concocted rate.
All we need now is a sterling crisis, a banking crisis and the whole of HMG going into default.
Just waiting around the corner, waiting to push us off the cliff, are the commercial loans, credit card loans, failing businesses, increased unemployment.
6:53 pm, November 24, 2008
Looks like the Neo-Cons don't like this pre-budget.
It would be easier to put a link through to the Daily Fail & the Torygraph, just to cut out the middleman.
Conservative economics, they make the British Natzie Party sound intelligent.
GW
9:29 pm, November 24, 2008
Time to get your moth eaten wallets out and spend our way out of recession you tight fisted Tories!
9:49 pm, November 24, 2008
Anonymous
Unforetunately I dont have long hair, smoke cannabis....therefore cannot be a hippy.
The Tories are in a hole. They have reverted to their Ultra-Right Thatcherite self.
As it happens there are many holes in your argument. We have had a combination of tax and spend as well as a control on interest rates.
Being personally abusive towards me is pathetic and merely sums you up: get a life.
Oh and you dont have THE GUTS to put your name...oh dear.
10:19 pm, November 24, 2008
Anon 6:22.
You talk of the FSA and city regulation - which side were you on when these issues were discussed. Some would have liked more regulation, but this was bitterly opposed by the city, the Conservatives.
Which side were you on?
10:46 pm, November 24, 2008
no point in arguing here...it seems as though the only person who's keeping their marbles is the anonymous one - probably doesn't want or need the hassle of the Nu-Labour stasi striking him down or leaving a freshly squeezed press release on his bed...its a filthy animal...
but seriously folks...the time to emigrate is here again...
11:52 pm, November 24, 2008
Oh, please do emigrate and do us all a favour. Take the rest of the Tory scum with you.
12:11 am, November 25, 2008
Nice to see you on the right side on this one, Luke. And I of course agree with you - a fight on proper politics we can all take to the Tories next time. They've got nothing of relevance to say about this crisis. Though if we're honest none of the advocates of deregulation have.
11:42 am, November 25, 2008
But Merseymike if all the Tories left who would there be to pay all your benifits up North, or to create the wealth that the Government then takes and uses to hire more useless public sector employees with gold plated pensions that have to be paid for by the private sector. And so it goes on.
11:59 am, November 25, 2008
You think that the City creates wealth????
Its because of them we are in this mess. Go on, piss off
12:04 pm, November 25, 2008
Actually, as the Darling admitted yesterday, one of the reasons that they're having to borrow so much is that the City won't be paying as much tax, both corporation and income.
The City did it's bit (easy to say in hindsight), but the Government has a lot to answer for. At this stage in the late 1980s Lawson was running a 2% GDP suplus as opposed to a 3% deficit today.
Also individuals do have to take a portion of the blame - they took on too much debt without any thought as to how they were going to pay it back.
Now toddle of back to your hole - don't forget to cash your giro en route though!
12:35 pm, November 25, 2008
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