Good for Polly Toynbee:
There are no mysteries about poverty, neither its causes nor its cures — which are more jobs, more money, more education and more Sure Start. What works has been studied by researchers for a hundred years. We know it all, and yet we grow closer in inequality to America and further from the rest of Europe. The government's astonishing trajectory of cuts means that, according to Professors Peter Taylor-Gooby and Gerry Stoker, by 2013 public spending will be a lower proportion of GDP in Britain than in the US.
The only great mystery is how to construct a politics where people trust that remedies will work and that wealth can be more fairly shared to the benefit of all. That requires a Labour party that itself believes it wholeheartedly, before it can start persuading others.
Bang on.
Labour lost this faith.
It's what the left is about.
Labour has to believe it, and deliver it.
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Labour, such as it is, just wants the key to the executive washroom now. There are no political answers to what we’re going into.
BB
Not so Bill
There are answers that are better than political and easy to get once you get unity behind good common sense:
VAT is now 20% – Good. Split it in half to get half those funds into an investment fund (CONTRIBUTION SHOWN ON BILLS ALONGSIDE VAT which people and businesses can apply for) to accelerate the energy transition (also get the utilities currently getting a free ride to do a proper job of insulating all our buildings externally where possible) thus reducing our balance of payments deficit – see “every Town an Eco Town” available by emailing me. This reduces not only Government debt, but personal and business debt – for the LONG TERM that Richard has written about – i.e. the opposite of short-term thinking. [Ian.greenwood@STEERglobal.org ]
Government should announce these measures IMMEDIATELY to get some progress THIS SUMMER (2011). Otherwise the ridiculous scenario will continue where the current (inadequate) Green New Deal will not be in place before Autumn 2012!! This would help to get the price of oil and gas down – simply by reducing demand; reduce fuel poverty. Then we could focus on reducing other forms of waste and increasing environmental investment.
RESULT political harmony and cross-partisan support – as well as a national INVESTMENT PROGRAM and people Back to Work.