{"id":73279,"date":"2023-12-03T07:57:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T07:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=73279"},"modified":"2023-12-04T09:28:14","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T09:28:14","slug":"labours-plan-for-britain-is-austerity-piled-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2023\/12\/03\/labours-plan-for-britain-is-austerity-piled-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour\u2019s plan for Britain is austerity piled high"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer has a deeply depressing article in The Telegraph<\/a> this morning.<\/p>\n

He began by talking about:<\/p>\n

It is in this sense of public service that Labour has changed dramatically in the last three years. The course of shock therapy we gave our party had one purpose: to ensure that we were once again rooted in the priorities, the concerns and the dreams of ordinary British people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To put those dreams in context he said:<\/p>\n

Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He mentioned Clem Atlee, but only to note:<\/p>\n

A century ago, Clement Attlee wrote that Labour must be a party of duty and patriotism, not abstract theory.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of his founding of the NHS or the creation of the welfare state there is not a mention. Instead we get:<\/p>\n

The Tories have talked the talk on fiscal prudence while wasting untold billions\u2026. They have squandered economic opportunities and failed to realise the possibilities of Brexit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amongst Labour supporters opinion polls show almost no one thinks there are any such benefits. At this juncture only a fool could be persuaded that there might be.<\/p>\n

This, though, is where Starmer really reveals himself:<\/p>\n

They will bequeath public finances more akin to a minefield than a solid foundation. Labour\u2019s iron-clad fiscal rules will set this straight \u2013 but it will not be quick or easy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The crass stupidity that is Labour\u2019s fiscal rule - that will guarantee austerity and failing public services in the UK- is on display here. This is so much so \u00a0that he notes :<\/p>\n

There will be many on my own side who will feel frustrated by the difficult choices we will have to make. This is non-negotiable: every penny must be accounted for. The public finances must be fixed so we can get Britain growing and make people feel better off.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Starmer clearly thinks three things.<\/p>\n

The first is that the government has no money of its own, which we all know is not true. QE proved it.<\/p>\n

The second is that there can be no accounting for deficits, which is oxymoronic, because we can only know they exist if they are accounted for.<\/p>\n

And third, that the illusionary goal of balancing the budget - which is thankfully very largely unknown in recent British history, because all economic progress depends on the existence of such deficits - is more important than the provision of public services. It is quite staggering to see him make that so clear, and deeply depressing.<\/p>\n

A Labour government led by Keir Starmer will be a disaster for this country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer has a deeply depressing article in The Telegraph this morning. He began by talking about: It is in this sense of public service
 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":[35,118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73279","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=73279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73304,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73279\/revisions\/73304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}