{"id":11739,"date":"2011-09-06T20:40:28","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T19:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=11739"},"modified":"2011-09-06T20:40:28","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T19:40:28","slug":"maybe-osbornes-quite-happy-a-double-dip-that-provides-cover-for-all-he-wants-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2011\/09\/06\/maybe-osbornes-quite-happy-a-double-dip-that-provides-cover-for-all-he-wants-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Maybe Osborne’s quite happy a double dip that provides cover for all he wants to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

I thought this comment from Ivan Horrocks in response to my blog post from earlier today to be found here<\/a> was too good not to share more widely:<\/p>\n

I do wonder if part of the issue you and many other commentators have with Osborne and co is that you\/we are ascribing to them a primary economic policy aim which is in fact not their primary aim. We assume that Osborne and co\u2019s primary concern (aim) is to get the economy growing again. And to be fair, this is the impression that Osborne and co promote.<\/p>\n

But what if their primary aim is in fact to (try to) fundamentally restructure economic (and social) relations in this country (and beyond if they can) and that their belief is that to do that \u201causterity\u201d is an essential tool. It can be argued that this is similar to the approach Thatcher employed between 1979-83. For example, under the cover of \u201causterity\u201d we are witnessing a massive fire sale of public assets, planning laws are being relaxed, the NHS is being \u201crestructured\u201d, and so on and on, all to the considerable benefit not to the \u201cbig society\u201d but to big business and big finance.<\/p>\n

My conclusion would be that the \u201causterity\u201d approach \u2014 and the narrative that\u2019s been developed to support it \u2014 will not be dropped, regardless of any arguments put by the IMF, UN, you, Martin Wolf or anyone else \u2014 or the production of data that shows how dire the economic situation of this country is \u2014 until Osborne and his supporters are confident that their primary policy aim is sufficiently entrenched to withstand efforts to stop or undo it. Again, we see this approach reflected in the behaviour of Thatcher\u2019s first government. And, furthermore, it resonates with the reported view of senior\/influential Tory thinkers, that the first Blair government wasted their first two years in power. In summary then, we could argue that Osborne and co have simply been very good at learning from history.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It's a depressing thought with a horrible resonance that makes it appear all too\u00a0plausible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought this comment from Ivan Horrocks in response to my blog post from earlier today to be found here was too good not to
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11739\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}