More Balls on Radio

Wookster

'Government spending did not get us into this mess'

What planet is he on? Hasn't he seen events in Europe?

Everything this man sprouts is nonsense!

hallmark

Quelle surprize at that claim from the man who devised much of the spending!

abaxas

Why dont we just call him a liar and move on.

pqrdef

Wookster wrote: »

'Government spending did not get us into this mess'

Actually, it didn't. The root cause of the slump was the shift of manufacturing from America to China.

There was no debt crisis until the eurozone manufactured one, not by having too much debt, but by mismanaging it.

Loanranger

It is now clear that the Labour party will not be re-elected for a generation.
They ran up massive debt and sold off the gold reserves very cheaply.
They lost the last general election in spectacular fashion after riding high in the polls.
They chose the wrong person to lead the party.
They have no viable solutions in hand.
All in all, a waste of space.

chewmylegoff

i don't really understand what balls' plans are now.

he wants to increase govt spending, but use "windfalls" on banking shares to cut national debt.

ed seems to have a problem with the definition of the word windfall.

a couple of years ago, just after the tories (sorry, i mean the coalition) had got in, govt borrowing was projected to be something like £175bn for the financial year. when it was only £168bn, ed declared there had been a "windfall" and the extra £7bn should be used to build houses.

now, he seems to think that investing in banking shares at 50p, and those shares then falling in value to 20p is also a "windfall" and the proceeds of selling the shares can be used to reduce the national debt.

you have to wonder what happens when his bank sends him a letter telling him they've extended his credit card limit. probably uses it to pay down his mortgage.

Graham_Devon

2 years on and labour are still reviewing their policies.

And it shows. Ed balls is STILL speaking.

Going4TheDream

I find it incredibly frightening that there are still people who would actually vote for them if an election was called tomorrow

IronWolf

Going4TheDream wrote: »

I find it incredibly frightening that there are still people who would actually vote for them if an election was called tomorrow

I know, you've only got to watch Question Time to notice that a significant portion of the population has bought all this "too deep too fast" nonsense and thinks you can spend your way out of a budget deficit.

vax2002

If I had a shop that constantly bought in more stock than it sold, would it be a surprise if we went bust ?
They try to over complicate things, but generally the country runs no different to the housewives budget and on the basis you can not have steak on a mincemeat budget.

michaels

Interesting is the idea of a VAT reduction on house improvements which has been mentioned on this board before - TBH I can see this happening as part of a Tory 'green growth' boost announcement with the hope that bringing some of this expenditure on to the books will actually raise as much in vat and income tax as it looses on direct VAT take and such spending is also impacts directly on employment - or be it for Polish plumbers...