Lord Selsdon couldn’t resist a swipe in a question http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/80604-0001.htm#08060470000003 aimed at the Labour Government on the economy and recalling past battles about ‘boom and bust’. This was Gordon Brown’s frequent jibe at the last Tory governments economic policy.
As I sat on the Opposition benches during a very long 18 years I recall it well! There are however, major differences between our present situation and the two big slumps of the 1980’s and 90’s.
So I intervened on Lord Selsdon’s question to remind him and others that although things are tough right now we still have a far lower rate of unemployment then we had in the past or that our main competitors have. It is also true that manufacturing industry is doing rather well at the moment. We always ignore manufacturing when it is performing well and that is a pity.
The only reason that the present unemployment figures show the numbers that they do is because Blair and Brown have tampered with them, like a lot of other statistics (inflation figures, utter rubbish.) The (hopefully for not much longer) present government must think we have just climbed down from the trees. If the true figure for the number of people not working were revealed it would be close to 3 million. Add to that the vast number of surplus to requirement civil service jobs foolishly created by Brown and the figure would be 4 million. Please, do not insult my intelligence.
I disagree! I believe things are much worse.
There seems to have been a move away entirely from patriarchal government to one that relies entirely on voters own choices when it should be a balance of the two. The House of Lords should be the patriarchal voice in our democracy but its hands are tied and its voice silenced by the Commons.
What is particularly sad is that members of unions cannot exercise their rights because they are too much in debt and too afraid to act. Employers have a hold over them which effectively reduces unions to interested bystanders.
The other aspect is debt itself. Voters have made their choices along with the misery that might accompany it. They will not blame themselves but will blame the government this will weaken Parliament.
Does government have a mandate to protect voters from themselves? The New Labour project says NO. It is up to voters themselves to make their own choices and live with the consequences. In this respect government has abandoned its electorate and made it a hostage to fortune. This is immoral!
I completely agree with Malty. This government has sought to control everything through a process of legislation and micromanagement and they have failed miserably. Given Gordon Brown promised that he would put and end to boom and bust, he should have done something about it. He was quite willing to claim the credit for the growth this country was experiencing, even though he knew it was built on credit and rising house prices.
He could have put a stop to it by introducing some form of credit control, it has been done before. Instead, he wanted to bask in the glory of others and now wishes to remove any personal responsibility.
If the government are not there to protect us from ourselves, then why so much legislation, regulation and interference? I have not been caught up in this current situation, that was my choice based on my previous experience, but Gordon Brown went through the same situation I did in the 1990’s and he even studied it, he should have known better. He can’t have it both ways, he is either guilty of political cowardice, in that he did not want to be the one that spoilt the party, or he is inept, he simply can’t have it both ways, although I feel certain he will try.