Sam Bidwell has a useful Critic piece on the budget.
A recipe for decline
This budget will do nothing to lift Britain from its doldrums
It was a mild day in late March when a Labour Chancellor last stood up in the House of Commons to deliver a budget speech.
With Labour struggling in the polls, Alistair Darling took to the despatch box with characteristic determination, unveiling a series of piecemeal measures which would do little to help Labour at May’s general election. Few now remember such riveting measures as Labour’s one-off bank payroll tax on bankers’ bonuses, or their small hikes to alcohol and tobacco duties — and who can blame them?
But it’s the budget’s subtitle which tells the most interesting story — Securing the recovery. The truth is, the recovery never came — fourteen years and five Prime Ministers later, Britain’s economy is still in the same slump that Darling was battling so fruitlessly. Wage growth has continued to flatline and economic growth has remained sluggish, while spending has continued to increase.
The whole piece is well worth reading, not because it addresses specific budget measures, but because of the measures which aren't there and because hardly anyone will have expected anything better. We already know what this government has to offer, the experiment has been run, the results are in.
Growing our economy will mean liberalising planning regulations, particularly for transport and energy infrastructure, but doing so will mean offending vested interests. So will ending unsustainable government handouts, or weaning our economy off its addiction to mass migration — but again, both of these things will be necessary for making our economy fit for the future.
Until we have a Government willing to endure this short-term political damage for long-term economic upside, we will continue to stagnate. Things will continue to get just a little bit worse, every year, in every way, for everybody.
But at least the budget was delivered by a woman, eh?
3 comments:
I heard a rumour that 2TK is wandering around saying that the PM's job is too much for him. True or not it could explain the current political shambles. Not an ordinary shambles, not a Tory mega-shambles, but a very Labour giga-shambles. Garbage in, garbage out.
And the Budget is not just Labour spending money poorly it is Labour shamelessly taking more of our own money and spending it poorly.
Yes, a very clear piece. It takes skill to explain economic ideas, and what we have here is a combination of clear thinking, plus an economic problem which is getting to be so obvious that anyone could grasp it.
Note the 22bn. figure being wheeled out again by "Rachel from Accounts ". The same as the black hole, and the same as that needed to put CO2 under the sea.
And I do like the idea that rather than cut services, the state has simply cut the ability to deliver those services. The NHS, justice system, and education are just Potemkin Villages.
DJ - interesting if true or not, because many will have been saying it for a while. Maybe someone close told him, although as you say, Labour is shamelessly taking more of money so shame isn't likely to be a problem.
Sam - I wonder how many Labour MPs grasp the economic problem? Possibly more than we know, especially those who wish to keep their seat at the next election.
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