Politics

Fraser Nelson

Tuesday, 7th April 2009

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The old wartime poster ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ has been reprinted recently and is turning up in the strangest places around Westminster. I have seen it on an MP’s desk and emblazoned on the cufflinks of a Treasury civil servant. It certainly captures the sense that we are undergoing an economic blitz, and acknowledges implicitly the temptation to panic. But at a time when Cabinet members are describing International Monetary Fund bailouts — quite extraordinarily — as ‘a kind of spa’, the case for keeping calm looks increasingly flimsy.

The main question at the heart of the Budget on 22 April is not who will receive what, but how close the nation is to bankruptcy. Alistair Darling will have to lay out in sickening detail the scale of the collapse in tax revenues and the extent of the government’s debt: £150 billion a year, the equivalent to an Afghanistan war every five days. Should this credit supply choke at any point, then it will indeed be time for a little of the same ‘spa’ treatment that Denis Healey gave Britain in 1976.

It is now horribly clear that the so-called ‘stimulus’ announced last October has been an abject and costly failure. The VAT cut has proved a commercial irrelevance, as any junior cashier could have predicted. The overall aim of the package was to curb unemployment, which was then forecast to be 1.1 million by the end of this year. It is now forecast to reach 1.9 million. Mr Darling’s instinct is to draw a line under this — yet in Number 10 the instinct is to play one final card: to borrow even more, and go for double or quits.

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john miller

April 8th, 2009 3:11pm Report this comment

Of course the government is deeply concerned about deflation. That's why it increased what we pay for politicians food in the House and why MPs got a 2.3% pay rise. When the price of goods plummets they'll need all the help they can get. Oh, wait, have I got that wrong?

Nobody can seriously believe that the UK can fund its budget deficits. Bond buyers who didn't take up all of the latest issue realise that Brownie is trying to inflict hyper inflation on the UK. Its the only way we can manage the interest on the debt, never mind the debt itself.

Brownies major problem is that he doesn't have enough time to stoke up inflation, so perhaps this reinforces my belief.

Brownie retires over Christmas 2009 because he has gone blind and the Tories have to be satisfied with a hung Parliament or a small majority.

Hyper inflation throughout their first term proves they are incapable of managing the economy, Labour force a vote of confidence and get back into power after only four years out of the frame.

Sorry to spoil Easter, Dave.

James

April 8th, 2009 5:05pm Report this comment

It is terrible that even with so little time left of his tenure, Brown will likely still wreak so much more havoc.

I am infuriated by the mainstream media's refusal to give more room to the idea that some of these banks should have gone to the wall. In America, many people knew this was necessary and although they were ignored, they have been proved right.

The absence of this debate means people do not realise enough just how much money was was on propping up these dreadful banks. For capitalism to work, losers and spivs must pay the price.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/5120618/Give-taxpayers-a-break-from-the-cuckoo-banks.html

M Rees

April 8th, 2009 8:09pm Report this comment

Spin about the Home Secretary's expenses is one thing, blatant lies about the parlous state of the nations's finance is bordering on the wicked. Brown is playing games, swapping the country's future for the sake of continued power. And yet there are still thinking Labour supporters that will not speak out. Put politics aside and think of poor old Britain. Brown has sown a whirlwind and we shall all reap the bitter harvest

Cuse

April 9th, 2009 1:07pm Report this comment

Yeah, thanks Fraser. Coulson's got you in election mode now hasn't he?

I thought this article was a review of "the week in politics". Silly me! Because it read like "why the Labour party is really beastly".

Grow up Fraser.

TrevorsDen

April 9th, 2009 3:44pm Report this comment

"his almost eerie ability to sit through a doom-laden briefing without flinching" -- this just shows up darlings lack of imagination. It shows his blissful ignorance.

But why should he flinch? He is not the real chancellor - it could be many people or a combination of all of them, Brown Balls Mandelson ... but it is not Darling. Why should he not just carry on taking his salary and expenses and say stuff to the rest of us

Browns G20 announcement is meaningless - he could have invented any figure; nothing will have any meaningful effect on the public.

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