So the Tories didn't "snuff out" the recovery in 2010

MARTYM8`

What austerity - government debt went up by over £500bn - more than all governments managed up to 1997 combined!

We just reverted to the same model that works - at least for a while - more debt higher house prices.

Graham_Devon

michaels wrote: »

Robert Peston really narked me with his

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34402234

You can't read that headline without thinking it was perceived wisdom that 'Tory Austerity' had led to a slower recovery. Perceived wisdom perhaps at The Beeb, The Graudian and Millbank House but hardly universally accepted.

Perceived wisdom in the tories too.

Afterall, it was the tories, specifically Osbourne himself that chose to change how he was doing things. Not the BBC, labour or the Guardian.

You can't really blame the guardian and the labour party for George deciding to do a U-Turn. In blaming other people, and assuming they forced change, you'd have to accept that the government of the day were extremely weak.

If I remember rightly at the time, some of the biggest whingers when it came to the austerity phase were the IMF and the CBI.

BobQ

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Don't worry, when labour get back in, in 2050, they can change the figures back again to something more suitable to your viewpoint.

Not very helpful. What I said was quite logical. If data 5 years old can be changed why should we believe data collected last year?

wotsthat

BobQ wrote: »

Not very helpful. What I said was quite logical. If data 5 years old can be changed why should we believe data collected last year?

All GDP figures are subject to change and revisions can and do take place for years after the initial release. Mainly this is a result of lagging data being received so confidence in the figure should increase over time.

There's no reason to disblieve GDP figures either but just understand them for what they are. Some people might think they're a fix but most people in this camp won't have spent 5 minutes looking at the published methodology and so their opinions will be based on prejudice rather than reasoned argument.

[Deleted User]

Generali wrote: »

Running a deficit in the middle of a boom wasn't a great idea by Labour. They even changed their 'golden rule' in 2005 because a deficit was obviously required at that point in the cycle.

Osborne promised an end to the deficit by April of this year,that has clearly NOT happened and probably now won't happen during this parliament either(despite his current promises/lies)
It is widely accepted that austerity during a recession isn't the best of ideas,it only makes things worse,and whats wrong with some borrowing at these low rates to invest in jobs?(decent jobs that is)

Mistermeaner

Which jobs would you invest in?

Fella

BobQ wrote: »

Not very helpful. What I said was quite logical. If data 5 years old can be changed why should we believe data collected last year?

Alister Heath pointed this news out over a year ago:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11073744/Everything-we-thought-we-knew-about-the-economy-was-wrong.html

"It is now even harder to argue that “cuts” wrecked the recovery, especially given that actual, overall real-terms reductions have in fact been much smaller than almost anybody realises. My own view is that the cuts should have proceeded at a faster rate, focusing on current expenditure, and that it was a mistake to hike VAT but the point is that the Labour narrative on all of this is now well and truly defunct. Many of the journalistic and political debates of the time now look utterly absurd "

"if we accept the new methodology – and everybody will eventually fall into line, as they always do – then it means that the economy has rebounded much more than previously thought"

michaels

woodbine wrote: »

It is widely accepted that austerity during a recession isn't the best of ideas,it only makes things worse


,and whats wrong with some borrowing at these low rates to invest in jobs?(decent jobs that is)

Agreed which is why at the top of the cycle you want to be paying down the National debt not adding to it to give you room to borrow during a recession.

Greece borrowed at historically low interest rates and invested in infrastructure, pensions, the health service etc.....it didn't end well.

mwpt

woodbine wrote: »

It is widely accepted that austerity during a recession isn't the best of ideas,it only makes things worse,and whats wrong with some borrowing at these low rates to invest in jobs?(decent jobs that is)

No, its widely accepted by a bunch of economists who all agree with each other. Another bunch don't.

Besides, austerity now is not a choice. It's damage control. The government need to at least appear to be prudent or risk the market turning against UK bonds.

Fella

And don't forget we don't actually have austerity. We have insanely high levels of spending. It's only austere compared to what Gordon Brown was spending. Like saying that a 30-stone guy who cuts down from 20 hamburgers a day to 18 is on a diet.