Another Darling vs Brown battle
Peter Hoskin 10:37am
Well done, Alistair. After taking on Brown over the crude "Labour investment vs Tory cuts" dividing line - and winning - it sounds as though the Chancellor is challenging another of the PM's lies: that the government's "stimulus" measures have "saved 500,000 jobs" during the recession. According to the Mail on Sunday, Darling has told the PM to stop repeating this claim because it can't be substantiated, and he's resisting having it put in the Budget, too.
As soon as the government started mentioning "500,000 jobs", Westminster's lie detectors started sounding; especially as it gradually morphed from "up to 500,000" to "at least 500,000". We at Coffee House Towers have submitted an FOI request for the Treasury's study behind this highly suspicious figure, but no word so far. Watch this space, as they say.
Now, claims the MoS, Darling would prefer it if Brown & Co. mitigated the claim, by returning to the "up to 500,000" formulation. That's better, I suppose. But it's probably still divorced from the truth. An Oxford Economics study, commissioned by The Spectator in January, suggested that Brown's stimulus would save 35,000 jobs this year and then actually destroy jobs in subsequent years. I wonder whether the PM will tell us that...
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Silent Hunter
September 6th, 2009 11:37am Report this commentIsn't it good to know that during this punishing recession which is really hurting the people of this country . . . the two men in charge of the economy are busy . . . scoring points off each other rather than trying to put our economy right.
The General Election cannot come soon enough!
TrevorsDen
September 6th, 2009 12:38pm Report this commentIf Darling is saying he is happy with the 'up to 500,000 jobs' phrase then he is every bit as big a liar and dissembler as Brown is.
10 jobs falls within this category and so the disingenuous 'up to' must be construed as meaning at the higher end of that number.
Without some meaningful banding the numbers are useless and can only be viewed as crude propaganda. The Spectators own conclusions are probably much more likely.
The stimulus (which we have impoverished future generations with) has of course only saved one job to-date; Brown's own
Kalvis Jansons
September 6th, 2009 12:42pm Report this commentIs this the end game for Mr Brown. I do hope so.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/please-go/
Senor Frizby
September 6th, 2009 2:07pm Report this commentMore inexplicable nonsense from the Ministry of Lies
Nick
September 6th, 2009 2:14pm Report this commentAs always with Brown's claims regarding the current recession he deliberately confuses government fiscal stimulus and the quite separate monetary easing by the Bank of England and the rescue of the banks.
It is quite true that if the entire UK banking system had been allowed to collapse then there would have been hundreds of thousands if not millions of people made unemployed. However there was never the slighest chance that the "state" (by which I include the government, treasury and Bank of England) was going to allow that to happen. So it is disingenuous of Brown to claim that by being party to the rescue of RBS and HBOS etc he deserves any particular credit.
Similarly the reduction in interest rates and quantatitive easing is all the responsibility of the independent Bank of England.
Which leaves Brown responsible for some relatively minor fiscal stimulus in the form of VAT reduction and cash-for-clunkers. It is this, as Oxford Economics points out, that is responsible for 35,000 jobs saved but at the expense of possible greater job losses in the future.
Chris
September 6th, 2009 4:26pm Report this commentLiam Byrne used the 500,000 jobs lie on the Radio 4 news at 1 o'clock today (Sunday). He works for Darling...
Andrew K
September 6th, 2009 5:40pm Report this commentI think I also heard Mr Byrne recently on the World at One getting away with a remark about NHS cuts during the Thatcher years. As I understand it, NHS funding rose ahead of inflation year-on-year all the way through the Thatcher years: the cuts were made under the previous Labour government.
Sean o'Callaghan
September 6th, 2009 6:19pm Report this commentOn the 500,00 jobs figure, you say Darling is "resisting having it put in the Budget, too." It was actually referenced clearly in this years Budget and the Chancellor has used the figure several times since.
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