22nd April 2009
Raising the White Flag
“Darling’s final nail in the coffin of New Labour” is the headline in the London Evening Standard tonight but I think it was the white flag - not the red one - that Labour raised in the Budget today. Some of us probably harboured the belief that Gordon - the colossus of Comprehensive Spending Plans past, the creator of Golden Rules, wooer of Prudence - had some kind of plan that hed had been feverishly working on (which was the reason he’d taken his eye off MPs expenses, Special Advisers’ antics and other such things that the lesser mortals of the media busy themselves with). The truth is, there is no plan; Labour is finished. This is a now officially a caretaker administration.
In the last few days the Sustainable Development Commission, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and David Blanchflower, the only member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee that got it right on interest rates, have joined Plaid in calling for a major stimulus package. In the end the Budget was about as simulating as Alistair Darling’s delivery. A few billion for youth training, £300 million for a car scrappage scheme (which the car industry will end up having to part-fund itself), some money for housing, some for energy efficiency etc but by a rough calculation all of it amounting to about £5 billion. To match the ambition of Obama’s plan that should have been a £100 billion. Barack, Brown most certainly is not.
Off to do Wales Today now. One thought: in 1997 Labour’s campaign song was memorably Things Can Only Get Better. Now they are going to get a whole lot worse, it strikes me their campaign song next year (as next year it surely will be) should be the main anthemic number from the brilliant new musical Spring Awakening: I can’t repeat the title as this is a family blog, but if you’ve seen the show (which is showcasing some fantastic Welsh talent) you know the one I mean. Sorry no hyperlinks: must dash….
3 Responses to “Raising the White Flag”
Leave a Reply
You can comment on this article. but you must register first.
Your reply will be moderated and not appear immediately.
You can prepare your text in a word processor before pasting it into the box, but formatting such as bold and colour will not appear.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
marcscaife says:
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Dear Adam,
You seem to ecstatic at the prospect of a Tory government - surely you remember the last time they were in power and what they did to Wales? Or do you have a hidden agenda?
Regards,
Marc Scaife
Adam says:
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:33 am
Marc,
I remember the 1980s well. I joined Plaid Cymru in the middle of the Miners’ Strike because of the devastation being wrought by Thatcher and the ineffectual response from Labour under Neil Kinnock. I have no desire to return to the days of mass unemployment, but that is exactly where we are now under a Labour Government. Unemployment will in all probabibility rise to three million again before the General Election and it is rising in Wales faster than in most parts of the UK. The severity of the UK’s economic difficulties is in large part down to New Labour’s adoption of Thatcherite neo-liberal economic policies. In some important senses we have had to all intents and purposes a deregulating, City-obsessed ‘pink Tory’ government since 1997. Welsh manufacturing has been sacrificed on that economic altar. Twelve years in it is just a little too late now for Labour suddenly to rediscover its radicalism. Especially when it’s about to privatise the Royal Mint and the Royal Mail.
alj says:
April 24th, 2009 at 1:42 am
http://www.springawakening.co.uk
go see - everybody!!