Today it will be 15 months since Labour lost the May 5th 2010 General Election. Ever since they have denied that the economic mess we are now in was their fault. Finally they are now starting to admit their blame, which is a start.
Labour List is a major Labour Party blog. Today it writes:
"Labour says the reason it created this fiscal mess was to save the country from a collapse of the banking system. But let's get real – the reason there's a deficit is because tax income didn't cover the high public spending before the credit crunch/banking crash. Had the Labour government had a spending review mid 2000s, and reduced public spending, the deficit today would have been smaller. We must begin to admit that we were fiscally irresponsible for years, in order to gain the trust of the public again, at least on the economy.
Not only is it important in order to win elections - fiscal responsibility is the right thing to do. I know some people hate the analogy between a household budget and the national finances, but there is a relevant comparison. As with a company. If you laden yourself with too much debt, you end up spending the money you do earn on interest payments over a long period of time, and you end up in a vicious cycle which goes on and on, thus reducing your real economic power. If we are serious about building a prosperous Britain of the future, we need to realise as a party that economic responsibility is vital to that prosperous future."
It adds further that -
" We should be thinking about how we can go from a deficit of 10.2% of GDP in 2010 to a budget surplus in 2020. It's a shame Ed didn't include a single book on boosting growth or economic responsibility in his summer holiday reading list.
It's clear we can't leave this job to the shadow chancellor – he's made hardly any effort (nor has Ed Miliband for that matter) to take responsibility for the economic mess we're in, or to develop the policies required to re-gain fiscal credibility. We need a more vocal group of 'fiscal realists' within the Labour Party"the full article is on this link
http://www.labourlist.org/does-labour-need-its-own-tea-party-movement
My only comment is that I will wait with baited breath for any Labour MP in the House of Commons to admit what their own supporters are saying - as thus far in the Commons it has been a deafening silence: to the present Labour MPs Gordon Brown was never wrong.
Labour List is a major Labour Party blog. Today it writes:
"Labour says the reason it created this fiscal mess was to save the country from a collapse of the banking system. But let's get real – the reason there's a deficit is because tax income didn't cover the high public spending before the credit crunch/banking crash. Had the Labour government had a spending review mid 2000s, and reduced public spending, the deficit today would have been smaller. We must begin to admit that we were fiscally irresponsible for years, in order to gain the trust of the public again, at least on the economy.
Not only is it important in order to win elections - fiscal responsibility is the right thing to do. I know some people hate the analogy between a household budget and the national finances, but there is a relevant comparison. As with a company. If you laden yourself with too much debt, you end up spending the money you do earn on interest payments over a long period of time, and you end up in a vicious cycle which goes on and on, thus reducing your real economic power. If we are serious about building a prosperous Britain of the future, we need to realise as a party that economic responsibility is vital to that prosperous future."
It adds further that -
" We should be thinking about how we can go from a deficit of 10.2% of GDP in 2010 to a budget surplus in 2020. It's a shame Ed didn't include a single book on boosting growth or economic responsibility in his summer holiday reading list.
It's clear we can't leave this job to the shadow chancellor – he's made hardly any effort (nor has Ed Miliband for that matter) to take responsibility for the economic mess we're in, or to develop the policies required to re-gain fiscal credibility. We need a more vocal group of 'fiscal realists' within the Labour Party"the full article is on this link
http://www.labourlist.org/does-labour-need-its-own-tea-party-movement
My only comment is that I will wait with baited breath for any Labour MP in the House of Commons to admit what their own supporters are saying - as thus far in the Commons it has been a deafening silence: to the present Labour MPs Gordon Brown was never wrong.