A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Tory economic narrative

John Strafford of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy has this to say:

"December 28th
Conservative Economic Narrative

The Conservative Party narrative on the economy is shot to pieces. Yet George Osborne still goes on about "Labour did not fix the roof while the sun was shining". How different would it have been if the Conservatives had been in power? They were committed to the same spending as Labour. They were committed to maintaining the same tax take as Labour. That means they were committed to the same borrowing as labour, so just where would the money have come from to fix the roof? I think we should be told, or stop using this ridiculous slogan."

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Come on Luke! What about this Hackney
embarrassment though - where you are quoted?

4:43 pm, January 12, 2009

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

But it is true. You allowed the economy to expand too quickly and virtually all the growth was built on debt and house prices. It would have been prudent to at least use increased revenue to bump up the public purse.

Instead we have a PM who is determined to carry on spending with the slim hope of slightly improving the situation.

Just look at his latest policy of giving £2500.00 to businesses to take people off the dole. This policy would have been a great idea 5 years ago...but we are now in a position where there are more workers than jobs.

How fair would it be if someone who has just lost their job after working for 20 years with no gaps gets turned down for a job because the other candidate has been on the dole for 10 years. I can honestly see some employers making staff redundant and then taking on the unemployed in a bid to make a killing on this scheme.

Labours policies just show how out of touch they are with industry and business.

Brown and Blair have destroyed Britain and in the end we will be begging to the IMF for a bailout.

5:34 pm, January 12, 2009

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I can honestly see some employers making staff redundant and then taking on the unemployed in a bid to make a killing on this scheme."

I which case any tribunal worth it's salt will find for unlawful dismissal.

5:43 pm, January 12, 2009

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What sort of moronic argument is this? Labour gets away with branding the Tories as some sort of slash-and-burn party for 11 years, and now turns around and says the Tories would have spent exactly the same!

It has to be one or the other.

p.s. The new Populus poll gives the Tories an 10-point lead. Suck on that, Gordon.

7:51 pm, January 12, 2009

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tim, have you had any experience of these tribunals.....very much a post code lottery.

The problem with these sorts of bodies is that they are simply too busy and those at the bottom of the job pile rarely make use of them.

If Brown would have announced 5 years ago that he was going to retrain the million plus on the dole it would have made perfect sense. For one there were more than 1.5 million jobs and therefore no reason to be unemployed. I feel this policy could actually hurt those who will lose their jobs this year. It's pretty cut throat out there and if an employer is faced with having to pay to retrain a recent addition to the jobless total compared to being paid to retrain someone who has been unemployed for 6 months + then I know what their decision will be.

I suggested such scheme and even took part in a pilot almost 4 years ago. At the time the funding was pulled as it was deemed too expensive.

I think Brown knows this is his fault and he is trying to make a mends but at what cost? If Brown wants to do something then he needs to look at engineering and exports while the pound is weak. Britain needs to start making things and making them well.

10:35 pm, January 12, 2009

 
Blogger Luke Akehurst said...

Arcturus

Labour hasn't said it. A Tory has.

9:02 am, January 13, 2009

 
Blogger Mark Still News said...

Tories and Labour are both near enough the same!

During 1979-1997 there were 3 booms and busts!

During 1997-to now there has been one long boom and one very big bust!

During the boom years the working class lose out-The workers can hear & see all these middle class and upper working class boast about the value of their houses going up, low interest rates, and foreign holidays but workers struggle to pay the rent and go without. Now its the bust, the workers must pay for it with their jobs and tax payers money to filthy rich Tory bankers!

12:35 pm, January 13, 2009

 

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