Ed Balls will lay out the path to the failure of the next Labour government today. According to the FT:
Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, will try to boost Labour's poor ratings on the economy on Monday with a promise to show “iron discipline” with the public finances and a warning to his party that big spending cuts lie ahead.
In a pivotal speech, Mr Balls will start sketching out for the first time what Labour would do in power, including a warning to shadow ministers: “We will have to govern with much less money around.”
This is deeply disappointing.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: there are only 4 ways to get an economy to full employment (which I consider to be the only goal Labour should have). They are to increase consumer spending, net exports, business investment or government spending. That is it. Nothing else can work.
The first three are not going to increase. Consumers lack confidence; our export markets are in crisis; business is sitting on its cash because consumers aren't spending and nor is government. That means government must spend to restore balance in the economy - and it can. If only QE was spent into the real economy instead of being splashed on the City as at present we could restore balance to the UK - especially is we were selective and careful about how it was spent. We do not need a consumer boom: we need investment.
But Balls is not promising that. He's promising cuts. And that's a recipe for disaster, for the country, to all who live here, for Labour and for democratic choice.
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The Labour Part is clearly of no use to anyone concerned with social justice/reform of finance. Why those elements in the Labour Party that are concerned together with disaffected Liberals and greens don’t form another Party I just don’t understand – the time is right for it even if there is no immediate prospect of success, many disenfranchised voters will have someone to vote for. Of course, rich pensioners should not be getting the winter fuel allowance but it is indicative of the moral state of our culture that they rarely give it back voluntarily ( I think the Daily mail reported that 200 have done so so far afte the IDS ask!).
Highly disingenuous of the ‘Treasury insider’ to bang on about the threat of high interest rates – even with low interest the banks won’t lend!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2013/mar/07/low-interest-rates-not-working
I really don’t know why we think the narrative is going to change from the 3 (or 4)main parties. Perhaps it is just sheer hope that maybe one day Balls, Osborne, Cable will wake up and write a memo Jerry McGuire-style. Personally I don’t belive it will happen. Not a hope.
If Balls is setting out what has been reported today, then today marks the end of there being any hope of a new economic narrative before the Election. So it’s time to stop spending time walking down dead-end streets.
New Party anyone? One that puts the poorest first. One that invests. One that isn’t affraid to tax. One that believes Government and the Economy are only there to serve the people.
There is time.
We could call it the SDP (joke) but the need for a new politics is real
Was it Alastair Campbell who thought all policies should ‘read well in the Daily Mail’?
Balls could be making the case you do today as to why another economic crisis is coming. Will the alternative to the present Coalition policies go by default because of fear of tabloids? They are never going to endorse the Left anyway (except the Mirror)
How to take more away from those that have the least in order to woo the unelected tyrants that the City of London represents.
Cutting the winter fuel allowance to those on incomes above £45K is hardly taking anything away from those that have the least.
Remember the note the last Labour govt. left on the desk of HM Treasury; “Sorry, there’s no money left……”.
No gov’t with its own currency and central bank is ever in that position
Byrne was wrong at every conceivable level
This is all very depressing. It really is. Maybe a new party is the way forward but the country will be going down the tubes for a long time before it gains any traction. We have this to look forward to on Thursday:
“Ed Miliband, will take the iron discipline message a step further on Thursday by proposing a cap on welfare spending not linked to the economic cycle.”
I thought these guys were supposed to know something about economics?
Alas, this is all the result of having wasted 7 crucial months electing Ed M, leaving the Con-Dems an open field in which to embed the idea that “Labour’s spendthrift ways and lax or incompetent handling of the economy” was an accurate description of the 2007-10 period (conveniently allowing them to tar 1997-2007 with the same brush) when this “received truth” is not only bollocks, but the exact opposite of the truth.
But that brings in their second obstacle, which is that they’d have to acknowledge that Gordon Brown got most of his calls on the economy right, and that what he predicted in the election debates turned out to be vindicated, something Labour is scared to say, when Brown’s reputation is that of being the Duke Bluebeard of economics.
So all that’s left to them, now they’ve bottled out on really telling the public how things really are, is to piuff up their chests and say they’re going to be even tougher than the Tories = enlarging the hole made by the iceberg in the hull of the Titanic!
I could weep with anger and frustration. Isn’t there anyone who can get up there and spell it out in words of one syllable?
I try
Richard, indeed you do – not only try, but succeed! I should have said “Isn’t there a major politician who can spell this out in words of one syllable?”
Michael Meacher tries – indeed, he, like you, succeeds in clearly enunciating the message, but lacks the requisite visibility and recognition/acceptance factor. So who is there? I’m at a loss to say, but Caroline Lucas strikes me as the nearest to fit the bill.
I think Caroline’s great
I’m delighted to call her a friend
I also know how lonely being a sole voice in parliament is
I am slightly baffled by this announcement, the language seems to go against how they’ve been speaking for the last few months – ie talk more optimistically about the future, re-energise local communities, by-pass the banks, really push for changes to tax avoidance. Also no means-testing. And generally sound language about Europe, immigration etc, breaking with new Labour. This is the first conversation they’ve had with the Daily Mail in ages. Do they know something about the Mail that we don’t?
This just brings us closer to the day when Labour and the Tories split apart and a new anti-neoliberal party is formed 🙂 It’s no longer right and left that represent the great political divide! I’m happy today because there’s Balls coming out as the Oxbridge mafia character I’ve always suggested he really was 🙂 Roll on the new political landscape! Tick tock!