Did Labour crash the economy?

[Stato]

It was under Labour's watch that it happened. It happened because Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown all inflated and deregulated the financial sector in the UK, and other neoliberals around the world pursued similar policies. The Tories have no right to criticise Labour, as they weren't advocating cuts to the budget in the run-up to the crisis; instead, they were pimping around tax cuts for the very rich, via inheritance tax reductions. To be fair, the only MP that was articulating clear concerns with the levels of debt at that point, it was Cable (although his subsequent volte face has been resentfully taken).
The fault is neoliberalism, the idea that privatisation, deregulation, and financialisation will sort out the economy. Unfortunately, we haven't broken out of that mentality, despite its unpleasant ethos and disastrous track record.

This is the truth. Here's an interesting piece which undermines any criticism Cameron and Osborne make of the last government's approach to the banks and shows that Balls was just as blind to the danger of unregulated markets. Prior to the collapse Labour were cockily congratulating themselves for being business friendly and the only criticism from the tories was that they were regulating too much:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...t-politicians-used-to-say-about-the-City.html

Luckily for Cameron the electorate has a very short memory for anything subtle or complicated. The lie that the problems were all about public sector spending was swallowed because it was simpler and more palatable than the truth. I.e. despite their Oxford PPE educations, none of our politicians have a clue how to control international finance and instead try to placate the City in order to pick the scraps from its table.

 

[User removed 4]

It was under Labour's watch that it happened. It happened because Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown all inflated and deregulated the financial sector in the UK, and other neoliberals around the world pursued similar policies. The Tories have no right to criticise Labour, as they weren't advocating cuts to the budget in the run-up to the crisis; instead, they were pimping around tax cuts for the very rich, via inheritance tax reductions. To be fair, the only MP that was articulating clear concerns with the levels of debt at that point, it was Cable (although his subsequent volte face has been resentfully taken).
The fault is neoliberalism, the idea that privatisation, deregulation, and financialisation will sort out the economy. Unfortunately, we haven't broken out of that mentality, despite its unpleasant ethos and disastrous track record.

for the very rich ?? Inheritance tax ? Do leave off , even given that half the population is liable for inheritance tax these days it's a totally and utterly immoral tax anyway, why the Fvck should people have to pay more tax on assets or money that's already had tax paid on it ?

 

[super ads]

Perhaps the conservatives should apologise too.

Their growth in the economy is half that of the debt they have added, a cool £600 Billion. And they are trying to tell everyone how well they've done

If you are left with a deficit of over £100 billion a year then you are going to run up more debt. Muppet

 

[El Presidente]

for the very rich ?? Inheritance tax ? Do leave off , even given that half the population is liable for inheritance tax these days it's a totally and utterly immoral tax anyway, why the Fvck should people have to pay more tax on assets or money that's already had tax paid on it ?

Isn't VAT, fuel duty, tobacco duty and alcohol duty tax on money that's already had tax paid on it?

 

[beorhthelm]

its rather poor for the politicians to be trotting out this, as Labour didnt "cause" the crash. what they did do is overspend and extend spending into the future when they where in a position to be more sensible and frugle with public money. Brown thought he'd solved boom and bust right in the middle of a boom, and failed to recognise a bust was on the horizon (and it was widely predicted at the time that the economy was going to turn downwards).

if you want a cause, it was Clinton's policy in the 1990's to encourage banks to lend money to anyone who wanted it to buy homes, combined with a decade of cheap credit as we poured money into the far east that had to go somewhere.

 

[Stato]

given that less than 4% of estates are liable for inheritance tax these days

Corrected for you. Your figures were a tad out. If overestimating a figure by a multiple of 12 can be called a tad.

www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn00093.pdf

 

[Stato]

to encourage banks to lend money to anyone who wanted it to buy homes, combined with a decade of cheap credit.

And according to Ross Ashcroft, they have done exactly the same thing again:

http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...mic-crash-is-coming-how-did-this-happen-video

 

[drew]

There was a world wide recession that was the main cause of our recession. I don't blame the greed of bankers, as of course they're greedy, that's basically their remit. And I don't blame Labour for the fact we had a recession, but I do blame them for overspending and failing to pay off any of our debt when the good times were here. I also don't think they're well suited to re-building our economy.

Up to 2008 then exactly where were they overspending? In the first two terms they had already paid down the national debt to a level lower than it had been any time since 1993 (as a % of GDP which is the best way to measure it). Of course a labour government are going to spend more on public services than a tory one but the spending was far from out of control. It was only when the government then had to support failing banks and pump money into the economy that the debt rocketed up.

Labour and the bankers both to blame, both carried out reckless economic policies. One for capital gain the other to remain in power.
Both utterly shameful and both still trying to avoid any kind of responsibility for the car crash they left behind.

Fair point. But I am only making a point about the party who were in charge, those who made the decisions are the those who were accountable. It is their throat to choke.

But that is a ridiculous comment. It's like blaming the Conservatives for World War II because it started on their watch, or the Liberals for WWI for the same reason.

 

[crookie]

for the very rich ?? Inheritance tax ? Do leave off , even given that half the population is liable for inheritance tax these days it's a totally and utterly immoral tax anyway, why the Fvck should people have to pay more tax on assets or money that's already had tax paid on it ?

More to the point, why should relatives of those fortunate enough to ride the property bubble and the fortune in unearned income that comes with that, not have to pay tax. What have they done to enjoy a tax free unearned lump sum. The person that earned that money, if indeed it was actually earned at all, is dead, they are not paying tax. That more estates are paying inheritance tax is solely down to the ridiculous house price boom in this country that some idiots cheer on. That money is totally unearned and should be taxed

 

[Ernest]

Gordon Brown selling off £3.5 billion assets wasn't too clever.

The Mail was sold by the Tories you buffoon

 

[El Presidente]

It's like blaming the Conservatives for World War II because it started on their watch.

Churchill OUT, which funnily enough in 1945....

 

[drew]

for the very rich ?? Inheritance tax ? Do leave off , even given that half the population is liable for inheritance tax these days it's a totally and utterly immoral tax anyway, why the Fvck should people have to pay more tax on assets or money that's already had tax paid on it ?

Where did you get the idea that half the population are liable for inheritance tax? The threshold is currently £325,000, are you seriously suggesting that half the population have an estate worth more than that? Furthermore, if the estate is passed to a surviving spouse then no inheritance tax is liable. When that spouse dies, the threshold is double, ie £650,000.

 

[crookie]

.....and we all know it won't be from Apple, google or Amazon......costas etc(you get my point.)
BUT....their out to get the tax dogers

Absolute c@nts

To be pedantic, Costa are part of Whitbread, a British company that is Headquartered and pays corporation tax in this country, I think you probably meant Starbucks. If you have to have a coffee, please use Costa not Starbucks, at least you know all of the money you pay will stay in this country rather than be siphoned off to Luxembourg or wherever

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Labour are getting a panning on Question Time on the economy.

 

[1234andcounting]

Purely in economic cycle terms the western economies were probably due a recession. I think it is generally accepted that the sub-prime mortgage fiasco in the US was the principal driver. This in turn probably came about due to relaxed regulation of the financial sector, as indeed were the banking crises in Europe, including the UK. There is a view that a strong deflationary trend had taken root before then (most consumer goods, food getting cheaper, only the cost of housing increasing) which exacerbated the problem and delayed the recovery.

Was the Labour Government responsible? Other than in attempting stronger regulation of the financial sector, very probably no. However, along with all administrations for the past 30 years or so, it failed to look at some of the more fundamental and deep seated problems of the UK economy; a hugely distorted housing market being the most obvious, but an ageing population and an under-educated and trained workforce being two others.

 

[jackanada]

While I personally disagree with the banking bail out a recent study declared the emergency economic summit led by Gordon Brown (yes him) to be the most effective summit meeting in history.
Yep Gordon Brown.

 

[jackanada]

Up to 2008 then exactly where were they overspending? In the first two terms they had already paid down the national debt to a level lower than it had been any time since 1993 (as a % of GDP which is the best way to measure it). Of course a labour government are going to spend more on public services than a tory one but the spending was far from out of control.

Labours economic forecasts were remarkably accurate. The one area they proved not to be accurate in was the amount of tax collected as corporations and HNWIs restructured their assets (or criminally evaded billions in tax with the aid of city tax lawyers if you prefer).

 

[User removed 4]

Isn't VAT, fuel duty, tobacco duty and alcohol duty tax on money that's already had tax paid on it?

No, you know they're not they are a tax on goods, inheritance tax is a tax on money that's already had tax paid on it , or property, goods and chattels that have already had tax paid on it.

 

[User removed 4]

While I personally disagree with the banking bail out a recent study declared the emergency economic summit led by Gordon Brown (yes him) to be the most effective summit meeting in history.
Yep Gordon Brown.

Who was told exactly what to do by Mervin king as by all accounts from people in the city who KNOW what went on,he was like a rabbit in the headlights, we'd already seen a few examples of his economic 'acumen' with the pulling of ACT on dividends and selling of the gold, not so much that he sold the gold at such a low price but the fact he ANNOUNCED he was going to sell such a huge amount, coco the fvcking clown would've known not to do that.

 

[User removed 4]

Labours economic forecasts were remarkably accurate. The one area they proved not to be accurate in was the amount of tax collected as corporations and HNWIs restructured their assets (or criminally evaded billions in tax with the aid of city tax lawyers if you prefer).

Criminally ?? Lots of prosecutions on the way then ?