Like something out of an old silent black and white slap-stick movie, Alistair Darling yesterday ducked and the next Chancellor in line will wear the economic punch squarely on the nose. All in the name of what Gordon Brown would call ‘fiscal timing’, that is we can only impose the pain when the recovery is under way.
Not only that there were short term sweeteners in some benefits that will be retracted after the next election.
Just like out-going Labour governments before this, the country’s economy is in tatters and the public sector is turning against them, their previous largesse forgotten.
At the end of the Millennium Labour was handed a fully fledged goose regularly laying golden eggs. They have systematically given the eggs away, mortgaged the family farm and finally cooked and eaten the goose.
The Tories are left with virtually nothing to play with (maybe a loan from the friendly IMF) and will be the ones who have to carve the painful path out of this mess. But of course the pain will be felt by all of us. During this process the Conservatives will make many bitter enemies, who will find it easier to direct their hate at the person in front of them rather than at the people who really put them there, especially if the government is of the wrong persuasion in their eyes.
Labour, by ducking the issues now, have ensured that the Tories will be forced into an emergency budget and making fast, hard hitting decisions almost on the hoof. This is not good for a complex economy such as the UK’s.
But all this will be forgotten in the years to come when eventually the hated Tories will be thrown out in favour of caring a ‘fourth way’ New, New Labour Party and the political cycle will continue on its circular journey.
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Tags: alistair darling, economics, labour, News, pbr, Politics, tax
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