I was on the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 at lunchtime, discussing the budget with Jeremy and Mark Littlewood of the Institute of Economic Affairs. I am told I sounded angry with Mark and the Chancellor. If so I am unapologetic.
Start at 28.30.
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WHAT CHANCELLOR DOING?
Littlewood said that those on benefits would be doing better than those on jobs!!
He actually said that!! ‘Little-Brain’ is what his name actually is.
Fancy saying that – fascist pig – turning people against each other. He does not seem to realise that there are people BOTH working AND on benefits. He’s an arse.
And he talks about the need to borrow from the markets again – as if Government is in hock to Goldman Sachs – which is bollocks. And what was his point about low interest rates, when really the economy for most people has not recovered since 2008?
Look, you all know who I am and I’m not the best person to say but I felt that all you did was put him in his place and he was on the back foot from that point forward. And for that I congratulate you warmly.
The biggest disappointment? That is was only Littlewood you were putting in his place and not Jeremy Hunt or another Tory fiscal criminal.
Now that would have been priceless.
However, am I the only person who thinks that we have been misled only in order that the Tories can make themselves look better?
The tax hike though – for those of us who have only just got some sort of pay rise after 12 years of austerity is just typical Tory giving with one hand and taking with another. I had to laugh bitterly when I heard that.
At the end of the day, the State created this mess and the State should sort it out. Instead, we are.
Don’t forget this moment folks, don’t forget!!
What I would like is to take them on on television
Why are the IEA still effectively on Question Time tonight
Oh you’d take them alright Richard – my goodness – so you would.
Angry? No, not really…. well not excessively. Valid points well made.
Thanks
It would have been good if you had had the opportunity to repeat your central challenge to the current orthodoxy – that governments neither have to increase taxes or borrowing in order to increase spending
Time is always very constrained on these programmes
Is Littlewood a professional economist? Or just a self-appointed think tank ‘expert’. If he is not a professional have you confronted Jeremy Vine about why you are debating with an idiot instead of a fellow-professional who holds different views to yours?
He has a degree in it…
So have I
But I also have post grad qualifications
Excellent interview, well done.
What struck me most was Littlewood’s comment about low interest rates and QE lasting for years on end and that we have had one crisis after another, as if that was some deliberate fault of the electorate. OK he gets10 out of 10 for observation there. But he also seems to “simply “believe that “enough is enough” and that if we don’t get out of an economic crisis in less than one year, we have to revert to economic suicide aka the Government’s latest Autumn Statement and BoE monetary policy.
I would like him to explain why he has this arbitrary time limit of just one year. He said we can’t go on and on with low interest rates and QE “year after year”…. but why does he believe that? If the outcome is more general human misery at the lower income level, it explains a lot about what the IEA agenda is.
You have summarised the IEA