Ah, the boy is back from my little ban-ette. Apparently I've been too insulting and here was me thinking I was holding back. You should have heard what I REALLY think ;-)
Anyway, there's a number of things I'd like to reply to but let me start with this:
Ah yeah, the usual blame Labour for a global economic crisis caused by a lack of regulation that the Tories backed at absolutely every stage. Yes, growth is higher now, nearly 10 years later, than it was in the biggest economic crash since the great depression. Well done. How's that debt mountain? How many people have become homeless in that time? What has happened to people's income levels? How many of those "employed" people actually have enough hours to make ends meet? How many more people are having to rely on food banks? If the economy is so much better under the Tories, why is it that no-one but their rich friends are seeing the benefits? The deficit is reduced? They said they'd get rid of it by 2015. So what happened there? Even by their own measures, they failed economically.
1. The reason it's the "usual blame", is because it was indeed their fault and it's appropriate to blame those who's fault it is. Labour inherited from the Conservatives an economy in good shape, with a budget surplus. But with their usual tax and spend and then more tax because the tax didn't raise as much as they hoped... they managed to run up a big fat deficit BEFORE the crash of 2007. Got that? I'll say it again: They managed to return the economy to the toilet BEFORE the crash of 2007.
Given they presided over a period of world-wide prosperity and growth, this was quite a feat, even by Labour standards. Admittedly it took much longer than it usually takes them to fuck up the economy, but that's because Blair was "Labour-light". Nevertheless, by the end, his mucker the good old glass-eye wobble-chin had raided every single tax pot he could imagine and some. He'd complete run out of pots to pinch from. Tax on insurance, tax on air travel, tax on god knows what.
The most insidious of these was his stealth tax on pensions. In 1997, your average £200/m pension would yield a return of about £250,000 after 20 years. After Gordon's gift to us all, those same investments were yielding about £150,000 in 2007. Thanks Gordy. A hundred grand out of pensioners' pockets in one nasty little stealth tax.
2. Good Lord. Labour preside over the deregulation of the banks, and it's the Tories' fault for not opposing them? Priceless, absolutely priceless.
3. Growth has been decent for years, as SWP has been pointing out. The Tories inherited a crock of shit (remember the "we've spent it all" note?) but with necessary but painful cuts (and YES, they have been painful) and careful management of the economy, they have managed to get things back on track. They've been back on track for 5 or 6 years now, steadily reducing the deficit whilst at the same time being very aware how much the cuts are hurting and therefore unable to cut as much as is perhaps really needed. That's why we still have a small deficit.
4. How's the debt mountain? Answer, it's growing nicely thanks??? But you know what it was growing by £180bn a year when Labour gave the Tories the hospital pass. They've managed to slow the supertanker and got it down to less than a quarter of that. Not bad. No, not perfect, but actually running a country is hard, as Blair and Brown so ably demonstrated by their managing to fuck it right up.
It is quite funny to hear Labour supporters ask how the debt mountain is, whilst completely ignoring the fact that THEY caused it. A bit like driving at 100 miles an hour down the wrong road for 10 minutes, then handing of the wheel to your mate and criticising him for not stopping soon enough, and having gone 100 yards further? You could not make it up.
5. As I say, running a country is hard. When you are handed from Labour massive debt, high taxes, a huge deficit and slow growth, what the fuck are you supposed to do? Raise taxes even further - the very thing that ruined the economy in the first place? Well obviously you have to be a bit careful about that, don't you. You can't go slapping huge great big tax rises around because it would crash the economy completely. How about borrow EVEN more? Again, very stupid as that would damage our credit rating, push up interest rates, push up the cost of servicing our debt, make everyone worse off and make the deficit even worse. So that's a no then.
So where was all the extra money to come from, to spend on all the things Labour demand the Tories spend it on? The cupboard was bare!
Austerity was an unfortunate necessity ("needless austerity" my ARSE) and it was always going to be hard. People actually understood that, which is why Cameron got in in the first place. They also understood it when he got reelected in 2015. No-one likes foodbanks of course, but contrary to what some people on here seem to think, it's just not possible to spend more money on everything. Doing that is the sure way to return to recession, job losses, unemployment and MORE food banks.
