Love-Bombing the Lib Dems
Something that my lovely fiancé has been predicting for a while has started to happen: Tory journalists are being worryingly nice to the Lib Dems. To some extent, this is function creep from Vince Cable’s elevation from third party economics spokesman
to all-knowing prophet of everything
. Only Robert Peston comes close to Vince’s level of respectedness on the economy now, and I don’t think that can be undervalued. But that isn’t a full explanation for what has been happening over the last few days. Tory journalists aren’t being grudgingly nice about Lib Dem politicians, they are actively lauding them. The Award-Winning Alix Mortimer spotted Quentin Tw… Quentin Letts doing it the other day, but what really brought it home to me was when we finally got around to watching the This Week Christmas Special tonight.
Take a look at the year in review segment. Try hard to weather Quentin discussing Gordon Brown’s buttocks (there has to be slash fiction in that) and wait for the final third, where they all discuss Clegg: both Letts and arch-Tory Nick Robinson are particularly nice – I nearly choked on my Blue Nun when Robinson (who was so horrendously misrepresentative of Clegg’s performance at conference) described him as Youthful, Charismatic, and looking increasingly likely to make a breakthrough
. But that’s not as worrying for me as agreeing with both of Letts’ points.
So why is this happening now? continue reading… »
Helping the Taxpayers’ Alliance
In a victory for common sense against possibly the worst idea I have heard all year, councillors in Stoke on Trent voted down a proposal by a ‘Libertarian Lib Dem’ councillor to invite the Taxpayer’s Alliance to ’scrutinise the whole of the City Council’s finances in preparation for the Budget Council to be held on 26 February 2009, with a view to identifying waste and needless spending’.
But while the Taxpayer’s Alliance will be disappointed at not having the opportunity to waste the time (at considerable expense to the, um, taxpayer) of council officers in conducting a review, in order to compile one of their shoddy reports and take the piss out of Stoke on Trent council in the Daily Express, this has given me an idea.
continue reading… »
Nick Clegg is still unconvincing
A group Libdems, who wish to remain anonymous for now, are planning to set up a Compass style party pressure group from the left – annoyed by Nick Clegg’s increasingly energetic drive to push the party rightwards. They contend that most of the grass-roots are broadly to the left of its leader and want to represent that opinion more forcefully..
And not a moment to soon either, judging by Clegg’s recent speech on ‘Why I’m a liberal‘ to Demos. I have some quibbles with the speech.
1. Socialism. Clegg starts early by comparing liberalism to socialism. This is, politically, a rather fatuous comparison to make since Labour doesn’t even come close to adhering of socialism, regardless of what the inbreds who hang around Guido Fawkes comments section actually say. New Labour is the party looking to part-privatise Royal Mail remember? Even Thatcher didn’t go that far. It looks like a silly straw-man argument to start with, but I think there’s a reason why he’s doing it (which is the last point).
continue reading… »
Where does capitalism go from here?
David Cameron was right to call the bankers to account earlier this week. But his ‘day of reckoning’ does little more than tinker with the problem. As the recession hits home, we need a national debate about how we build a new kind of pro-social economy.
It is the tax payer who has stood between capitalism and its self-inflicted collapse. With credit frozen and the banks unwilling to lend, the government is being pushed toward the role of sole lender. Capitalism has been rescued by people’s taxes and it will be dependent on them for its survival. It’s time for capitalism to be made accountable to democracy, and it’s time for democracy to renew itself and make itself fit for the challenge.
This is the great challenge of our time and it will shape our society for future generations.
continue reading… »
Let’s respond to the Welfare Reform Bill
There’s been a lot of debate in recent days about James Purnell’s welfare reform proposals. Supporters claim that the measures are true to Labour’s traditional values, are essential in difficult economic times and that there is nothing progressive about leaving people to languish on benefit.
Opponents claim that the plans would privatise the welfare state, are an attack on the most vulnerable in our society, and won’t work. In response to the proposals, they’ve set up the ‘Welfare for All’ campaign.
And the truth is… both sides have a point. Even the strongest critics of the bill would probably agree that there are some good ideas in it, for example changing the rules so that people don’t have their benefits reduced if they get child maintenance payments; while even some of the bill’s strongest supporters would concede that we don’t know how successful some of its proposals will actually turn out to be in practice.
Which is where you come in.
continue reading… »
Damn lies and statistics!
Today I discovered that I am a migrant! Who knew?
Did North London secede overnight whilst I wasn’t watching? (Again?) No, but since all the new jobs in Britain have gone to migrants since 2001, I must logically be one – three times over, in fact. Alan Green, Field and Soames’ ‘Balanced Migration’ campaign is scantily concealed racism doing a desperate recession striptease to garner the ’send em home’ vote with little regard for minor fripperies such as actual facts. As anyone giving the plans a cursory glance can tell. However, the distortion of its already distorted statistics by the right-wing press takes the cake.
The logical step at this point, being a patriotic soul, would be to follow general advice and ‘go back where I came from’. Perhaps Ms Neeson and Mr Desmond, the Daily Star proprietors, could even pay for me? Islington is only ten minutes away on the bus, and I could visit a selection of its many fine coffee-houses with change for a tenner.
Are you a migrant, too? Take the frothing racist lies test to find out!
Update: Phillippe LeGrain has shred apart MW’s stats.
Yet more Tory economic stupidity
I don’t want to make a habit of defending Yvette Cooper, whom I’ve always thought of as the poor man’s Ruth Kelly. But for Iain Dale to accuse her of economic illiteracy is rather like Ann Widdecombe calling her ugly.
Ms Cooper says:
We have never had a policy of targeting the pound. Our policy has been to target inflation.
To which Iain replies:
Last time I looked at the laws of economics they told me that a weak currency means the price of imports goes up, which leads to higher prices, therefore higher inflation.
But there ain’t no law about it. If exporters price to market – that is, accept the prices prevailing in their target market – a weaker pound will lead not to higher prices but rather to a squeeze upon exporters‘ profit margins.
continue reading… »
Energy firms: pass on cost cuts or face windfall tax
This week the government will face growing backbench and grassroots pressure to force energy companies to immediately pass on cost cuts to consumers. Leading backbench Labour MPs have tabled a fresh EDM urging government to take aggressive action on energy companies who refuse to pass cost cuts onto consumers.
On Thursday 11 December Fabian Hamilton MP tabled a fresh EDM calling on the government to actively intervene to force companies to reduce consumers energy bills and to then implement a windfall tax if they refuse to do so. Early Day Motion 268 reads:
continue reading… »
Labour still hasn’t sealed the deal
While eating on Saturday at a restaurant, I noticed this little sign on the table thanking the Chancellor for reducing VAT. I’ve been pretty sceptical of the impact and viability of this move, but a fellow blogger at a Boris watchers meet on Friday pointed out that businesses across the country were doing the Chancellor’s PR for him in mentioning these incentives.
As yet, the polls don’t point that way. Yesterday’s Comres poll in the IoS confirms an earlier view that Labour is only one point behind the Conservatives. A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times points to a Tory six-point lead, greatly reduced from double-digit leads only a few months ago (surprisingly, neither Iain Dale nor Guido Fawkes bother mentioning either poll).
Anthony Wells says what I’ve been banging about too:
The most surprising of the four statements to me was “The Conservative response to the economic crisis seems to me like a ‘do nothing’ strategy” – normally polls reveal a pretty cynical attitude towards politicians from the public, and the Conservatives hadn’t seemed to have got any obvious alternative strategy across to the public, so I’d expected majority agreement here. In fact only 45% agreed, with 45% disagreeing – suggesting Labour’s line of attack on the Conservatives hasn’t chimed as much as it might have (not that this seems to be helping the Conservatives in topline voting intentions!)
More Tory economic idiocy
The Tory economic policy is really beginning to annoy me. George Osborne has written an incredibly smug article in today’s (supposedly left-wing) Indy which trots out more guff.
1) The Germans may not be happy about our spending plans, but they’re pretty much alone in Europe on this. Even the (right-wing!) Sarkozy and Bush governments want to pump money into the economy. Some half-wit German ministers start dissenting and the Tories have a collective orgasm. Get over yourselves.
2) And then there’s this: “Only a few weeks ago Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling said that they would bring forward capital projects to boost the economy. Now they are announcing cuts and delays to major programmes.”
That is shadow defence secretary Liam Fox, annoyed that defence spending is being cut.. But…but… I thought these people wanted to cut spending? Oh, that was only for poor people that Cameron can demonise with help from the Daily Mail. When defence gets chopped then suddenly they want those big projects you see.
3) Anyone with half an economic brain can tell you that a sinking currency during a recession is a good thing because it makes our exports cheaper. Inflation isn’t a worry right now, deflation is. So a falling pound should be celebrated, not used as an economic football when you have nothing intelligent to say, Osborne.
Update: Oh look, Germany signs up to European spending plans
Is this what Cameron thinks of them?
Harpymarx says if you thought James Purnell was bad, then try Civitas.
Sure but if you thought those idiots were bad, check out David Cameron’s latest editorial in the Daily Mail. Now we know what the Tory leader truly thinks of all unemployed people: that they’re just on the verge of turning into Karen Matthews.
Or maybe he thinks that of all working class people. Anyone still praying for these arrogant toffs to come into power? (via Paul Waugh)
Update 1: Good related piece by Matthew Norman in the Indy.
Update 2: Beau Bo D’Or has knocked up a perfect response.
Tories: Do as we say but…
ConservativeHome has posted a useful nugget of information on why Conservative HQs had to lay off 10% of staff recently:
To paraphrase George Osborne (and Fraser Nelson in the News of the World) the Tory leadership did not fix the party’s finances during the good economic times and are now facing very difficult decisions as a consequence.
…
The credit crunch is obviously not Conservative Party’s fault but the effect would have been more limited if there were better financial controls and a more strategic view at CCHQ.
Wait a second, doesn’t that a ring a bell? Recall anyone making accusations of profligacy and not saving up for a rainy day? If these people can’t even run their own HQ with the values they espouse, how do they plan to run the country?
Who’s winning the war on welfare?
There has never been a better – or a worse – time to reform the welfare system. Aided by a recession which has made public spending the top political issue, and the deep anger caused by the tragedies of Baby P and Shannon Matthews, the public have become far more receptive to the idea of a tougher, sanction-based system than they were in the halcyon days of summer.
Short of a Labour rebellion on the scale of the 10p tax fiasco, our increasing antipathy towards the terminally jobless will probably see Purnell’s pet project sail through the Commons. And yet, as some are painfully aware, in days when the jobless figures keep rising, it’s hard to find jobs for the short-term unemployed, let alone those who have never worked in their lives.
The problem with trying to write about welfare reform is so much of the rhetoric tends to merge economic issues (the amount of money the state spends on the poorest in society) with social problems (the crime, poor education, family breakdown and general dysfunction which can be found in impoverished communities).The two are heavily linked, of course, but the mistake politicians often make is assuming that by producing policies to tackle the former, the latter will somehow fix itself.
The chief perpetrators of this mistake are the Labour government.
continue reading… »
Do the Tories favour a deep recession?
This week Barack Obama laid out his economic plans:
Obama, who takes office on January 20, began outlining his economic recovery plan on Saturday, saying he aims to create at least 2.5 million new jobs by 2011 and launch the largest U.S. infrastructure investment since the 1950s. On Sunday he did not put a price tag on the plan, which analysts say could cost at least $500 billion. But he acknowledged the costs would be “substantial” and would hike the budget deficit at least in the short term.
“We’ve got to provide a blood infusion to the patient right now to make sure the patient is stabilized,” Obama said. “We can’t worry short term about the deficit … We’ve got to make sure the economic stimulus plan is large enough to get the economy moving.”
Obama is likely to sell this as a way to ensure all Americans are ‘equipped to handle future challenges’ by investing green power, broadband, education and healthcare. If the plan works well, it could destroy the right-wing economic consensus around Milton Friedman for at least a generation and ensure Democrats stay in power for a while to come. Of course, US Conservatives are whining because they know what’s at stake, but unlike Gordon Brown at least Obama can lay out his plans forcefully and clearly.
So while the Tories have successfully managed to divert attention to the Damian Green affair, people are losing their jobs and houses and this government is still dithering over what to do or how to avoid talking about the ‘tax bombshell’. I despair.
Tory recession ad uses bankrupt builder
Oh dear, these Joe the Plumber attack ads don’t really work do they? Well, here’s another reason to point and laugh at the Tories, courtesy of Mark at Libdemvoice:
Shane Prescott starred in the Conservative party broadcast on Thursday, claiming his business had struggled because of the recession. But Companies House records show the 51-year-old father-of-four’s loft conversion firm actually went into liquidation at the height of the boom in 2006.
More at the Liverpool Daily Post. The ad is as fatuous as their own economic plans.
Nationalising banks isn’t a bad idea
Seamus Milne says it’s time to fully nationalize the banks. Leaving ideology aside, it’s not obvious that this is a stinkingly bad idea.
For one thing, Seamus is right that the measures taken so far have not worked. As the Bank of England says today:
Despite the actions taken to raise bank capital, ease funding and improve liquidity, conditions in money and credit markets remain extremely difficult. The Committee noted that it was unlikely that a normal volume of lending would be restored without further measures.
The simple case for nationalizing banks is that they would be able to raise cash much more cheaply and easily than they can now; before today’s Bank Rate cut, 3 month Libor was 3.8% whilst the 3 month T-bill rate was just 1.7%. This would almost automatically allow them to increase cheap lending.
continue reading… »
Four facts about welfare reform
Progress online features an incredibly smug article by David Coats about how the ‘Government must not step back from welfare reform’.
I met David Coats last year at a seminar which discussed this very subject. And I remember him explaining to me that, of course, the whole basis for the welfare reform proposals was that the number of jobs available would continue to increase, and that the model didn’t work if that stopped being the case.
Funnily enough, Coats doesn’t mention that now. Instead, like James Purnell, he attempts to frame the debate in the following, superficially plausible, way: “At this time it is important to provide more support to help people get jobs, and it is only right that in exchange for more support we expect them to take greater responsibility themselves. Of course, there are some well-meaning people who oppose these difficult but necessary reforms, but they are wrong to argue for the status quo.”
If the debate just gets framed as ‘more support vs status quo’, then the measure will pass easily. But if you are supporting these welfare reform proposals because you think that people who are out of work should get some extra help in finding a job, you might be surprised to find out that you’re also supporting the following:
continue reading… »
Misunderstanding economics
Guido has done us all a favour by exposing the innumeracy of some Tories. He accuses the Chancellor of making “fantasy forecasts” and quotes a correspondent querying Darling’s forecast that the economy will grow by 0.75% this year:
Now, when the chancellor stood up at the dispatch box, three quarters of 2008 GDP growth were known:
Q1 0.3%
Q2 0%
Q3 -0.5%
In order to hit the forecast 0.75%, the economy has to grow at feisty 1% in the fourth quarter. Has the Chancellor been outside recently?
This is just drivel. Let me explain.
continue reading… »
Good news for Brown in new poll
Though The Times is spinning it negatively, there are some stats in its new Populus poll that bode well for Labour’s economic plans:
- Voters generally back the decision to introduce a 45 per cent top rate of income tax for those earning more than £150,000 a year…. Two thirds say ‘it is fair and right for the richest people in Britain to pay more of the cost of measures to avoid the recession’.
continue reading… »
Woolworths and MFI – final sale
From the Guardian:
Furniture and kitchens specialist MFI has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, it was confirmed this afternoon. A notification of the company’s intention to file for administration was lodged at the high court last night and staff were told at meetings this morning that the store chain was about to fold, putting thousands of jobs at risk. The group was today offering 70% discounts on its website, with free delivery.
Reuters reports:
The board of DVDs-to-sweets retailer Woolworths will meet at 6 p.m. to approve a decision to put its retail and distribution businesses into administration, a source familiar with the matter said.
via Beau Bo D’Or
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» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
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