I posted on the austerity plans outlined in the 2010 Labour manifesto yesterday and it’s all there for you to read - a couple of posts above this one on this thread - so I’m not going to repeat that. The manifesto is widely available on line as well so you can have a look for yourself.
However, it wasn’t just a manifesto pledge as the last Budget delivered by a Labour chancellor in March 2010 also set the course for a sustained austerity programme. Fortunately the OBR website, in its Data section, contains a spreadsheet with the historical Budget forecasts of the past thirty years or so, and again you can look at this for yourself.
If you look at the worksheet containing the forecasts for the structural budget deficit - the cyclically adjusted current budget deficit (CACB) - you’ll see that the CACB was estimated at 4.8% of GDP in 2009-10, and Alistair Darling planned to reduce this to 1.3% of GDP over the next five years. The 2010 manifesto effectively repeated this commitment over the course of the next Parliament.
It’s interesting to compare this planned reduction to what actually occurred over previous parliaments in order to get a sense of scale. The March 2010 budget called for a 3.5%-pt of GDP decline, which is an enormous commitment, and only slightly smaller than the 3.8%-pt of GDP decline that Thatcher achieved in her first term (the historical data are also available on the OBR website).
So far from deranged nonsense, as you put it, I was simply referencing actual Labour policy, and Labour policy was for an austerity programme not dissimilar to Thatcher’s first term. You might still believe that austerity was a political choice rather than economic necessity, but the Labour Party certainly chose austerity.
Finally, I can’t find anything which suggests that school funding is declining this year, to answer your question. If you have the data or a source I’m happy to be corrected, but I think you may be referencing the recent civil service cock up which will result in a smaller increase in funding this year than the government had planned, but still not a decline as you say.
I genuinely find this quite amusing. Here we are in 2023, and you are banging on about mainfesto plans from 2010.
I'm happpy to accept you are party activist, and your answers are what I would expect.
It might surprise you that I'm not a Labour supporter. I have voted Lib Dems for most of my life, but I am, like most of the country, pissed off to the back teeth with this tory government.
The Lies and deceit, the failure to answer any questions and the constant takling over questions from interviewers is failing. That's the best way I can describe it.
I'm fed up with hearing nothing that has happened over the last 13 years is the fault of this dreadful government.
You quote the OBR. Yes, a fine institution which Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng ignored with their disaterous budget. I'll tell you one thing about that budget. It's the only time in my life my pension pot declined, a direct result of 'a 'true tory budget' as the Daily Mail described it. When my pension fund should have been increasing by thousands, as it had in previous years, it lost value. What an achievement that was. An uncosted pile of crap that cost the country billions, and she is trying to make a comeback.
Boris Johnson said 'Fuck Business' and scrawled 'Bollocks' on the report about the impact of covid on the country.
Well, it would seem 'business' has heard that message, and they are engaging in record numbers at the Labour party conference in Liverpool. Have you noticed they are filling out the huge hall over there in contrast to half empty side halls in Manchester during the tory party conference?
Quote whatever you want from the past, but it's wasted on me. I'm sick and tired of where this country is at and where it is heading, Tories are so thick these days they want us out of the Council of Europe to penalise asylum seekers, without any understanding it is our membership of the United Nations that defines their rights. It's an insane policy that will result in the UK population having less protection than the people coming here, but Suella Braveman, in front of a tiny audience, had her day in front of the hard of thinking.
And what the fuck was Penny Mourdount going on about with her 'fight, fight, fight for freedom' nonesense?
Boris Johnson told the EU they could keep our £6.9B profit from our membership of the European Investment Bank.
What a good bloke, giving away nearly £7B when Jacob Rees Mogg was teling us food banks were a good thing.
Yeah, quote whatever statistics you want. I remember the shit the tories wreaked on the north in the early 80's, and this time they are taking the whole country down.
I've always despised the tories and nothing you can say to me will change my mind. You'll just have to accept I think they are twats of the highest order.
