tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post3847995725251635827..comments2024-03-22T06:22:08.010+00:00Comments on Stephen Law: Letter to a Lib Dem MP (not by me)Stephen Lawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02167317543994731177noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-92061826934779580792013-02-11T00:26:44.466+00:002013-02-11T00:26:44.466+00:00Was this a letter, or a catalogue of ill-informed ...Was this a letter, or a catalogue of ill-informed cliches guaranteed to get a round of applause during Question Time?<br /><br><br /><br><br />Bankers! Booo!<br /><br><br /><br><br />Cuts! Booo!<br /><br><br /><br><br />Unemployment! Booo!<br /><br><br><br />Tiresome and childish. Characterising all MPs as pantomime villains who can't wait to ruin the lives of their country, or who are bumbling idiots, presumably backed by a bumbling civil service.<br /><br />It's cheap and easy to just complain about everything that the government (boooo!) does. I'd like to see the author pick any one of his buzzwords, formulate an argument of exactly how the government have ruined everything, and provide a viable alternative course, preferably with an evidence based justification. It would certainly be more helpful. JonBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15678456704494918790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-61308786365196311662013-02-10T17:38:31.792+00:002013-02-10T17:38:31.792+00:00I don't suppose it's mathematically imposs...I don't suppose it's mathematically impossible. There must be enough non-contracted for expenditure to remove the deficit. But it's bad enough when they slightly reduce expenditure, if they cut benefits/NHS/pensions enough to remove the deficit we might actually get the "slide into anarchy" the letter writer fears.<br /><br />Mind you, if they legalised, controlled and taxed drugs the deficit would be gone practically overnight. None of them the balls to do that though.Tony Lloydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03740295390214409286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-57105281080114718942013-02-10T17:12:46.811+00:002013-02-10T17:12:46.811+00:00What I really meant was that the current govt is a...What I really meant was that the current govt is always by definition responsible for the deficit (even though practically as you point out they may have inherited many problems). <br /><br />I take the point about the difficulty of changing spending due to certain prior commitments and it is certainly not illogical to blame their predecessors for making such commitments. I suppose perhaps if these commitments are so large and onerous then it may even be mathematically impossible not to run a deficit. Is this actually the case?wombatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-88498275720474514652013-02-10T14:31:28.450+00:002013-02-10T14:31:28.450+00:00Blaming the deficit on labour is not illogical.
...Blaming the deficit on labour is not illogical. <br /><br />One government inherits the tax and expenditure structures of the last and they cannot be radically changed in the short to medium term. The tax and expenditure structures inherited from the last government were set to suit “good times”. Now times are not good the expenditure goes up, the tax receipts go down and we have a deficit. In large part Labour policies caused the deficit. It’s a little silly blaming them though as <i>no one</i> was aware of the coming recession , no one objected at the time and we can be confident that <i>everyone</i> would have done much the same. It’s also pointless. We’re in a hole: the key point is how to get out, not who dug it.<br /><br />One part of the deficit Labour can be blamed for is PFI. PFI hides government debt. Instead paying outright for new/rebuilt hospitals and schools, which would require borrowing the capital, the government pre-agree to rent the hospital/school . But they didn’t just agree to rent the hospitals/schools they also tied the public into 20-25 year contracts for the supply of nearly everything to the buildings. See all those pubs closing down? It’s not because pubs <i>per se</i> are unprofitable but the freeholders tie the tenants in for everything: beer, wine, soft drinks. And they set the prices of all those ancillary things to make themselves as much profit as possible. The same with PFI: if you want to see a policy that directly profits mutli-nationals at the direct expense of public services then look no further.Tony Lloydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03740295390214409286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-19977526324043661012013-02-10T09:41:50.274+00:002013-02-10T09:41:50.274+00:00Yes some weird myths have been perpetrated very su...Yes some weird myths have been perpetrated very successfully by the Tories re debt. and the crisis all being Labour's fault.<br /><br />Labour inherited from the Tories a debt of 42% of GDP. At the start of the global banking crises the debt had fallen to 35% - near 22% reduction, acc to this source: <br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ramesh-patel/growth-cameron-austerity_b_2007552.html<br /><br />also this: <br /><br />http://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2011/08/interest-rates-debt-governmentStephen Lawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02167317543994731177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-65206541666312956512013-02-10T09:32:50.509+00:002013-02-10T09:32:50.509+00:00@Tony "...blaming the previous government for...@Tony "<i>...blaming the previous government for the deficit.</i>"<br /><br />As well as tiring it is logically wrong.<br /><br />The deficit is the shortfall between current spending and current taxation. The outstanding <b>debt</b> is substantially inherited. As the Office of Budget Responsibility and plenty of others have reminded Clegg et all.<br /><br />(e.g. see Guardian <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check-with-polly-curtis/2012/may/09/nickclegg-davidcameron" rel="nofollow"><br />"How Nick Clegg got it Wrong on Debt" <br /></a>)wombatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-49102134163345467662013-02-09T23:30:41.952+00:002013-02-09T23:30:41.952+00:00The strength of feeling certainly comes through.
...The strength of feeling certainly comes through. <br /><br />And I also tire of blaming the previous government for the deficit (I don't tire of blaming the previous government for two wars, complicity in torture, the erosion of civil liberties and nigh-on fraudulent PFI)<br /><br />But this reads as an inaccurate, ill-thought out rant that blames the junior partner in a coalition government for all perceived ills whether the natural consequence of a recession (unemployment), states of affairs that have persisted for decades (the north south divide) or ills simply invented (eg. no public service has been "sold off" to a multi national that avoids paying UK tax).<br /><br />Swap the words "EU" and "Brussels" for "Lib Dem" and "government" and it reads just like the rant of some UKIPer who latched onto the idea of Europe as a convenient scapegoat.Tony Lloydhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03740295390214409286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-39733571808403374332013-02-09T23:16:00.528+00:002013-02-09T23:16:00.528+00:00the situation is unfortunate, but is nice to know ...the situation is unfortunate, but is nice to know that the rich conservative are making a real mess there as they are here. Its enough to make one believe in a conspiracy.L.Longnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1905686568472747305.post-59956823929764686532013-02-09T21:29:27.518+00:002013-02-09T21:29:27.518+00:00"It's one thing ... are economically, soc...<i>"It's one thing ... are economically, socially and politically illiterate."</i><br /><br />Except that they know enough about how society works to divide it up and play the bits off against each other, and were politically astute enough to get elected.<br /><br /><i>"We are not daft! <br />We don’t believe you. </i><br /><br />But we still support a system that selects and trains people like them and then we elect them. See also previous paragraph.wombatnoreply@blogger.com