shuggy's blog
You are right in your gloomy forebodings. Before this expenses racket hit the fan I thought Cameron, as the probable next PM, had a huge opportunity before him if he was bold enough because he could slash government spending and blame it all on the Labour party and the ginormous debt they had left behind them. But now, as you shrewdly point out, it is going to be exceedingly difficult for any politician to take harsh measures. All the more reason, I feel, for him to be ruthless and dismiss/demote all shadow cabinet members whose affairs are not squeaky clean. It might mean promoting duds but how bright do you have to be to cut budgets?
A clever chap like you will have discerned that I relish the thought of reducing government spending - but that's another debate for another day!
A chap from Moody's, the credit rating people (who admittedly were giving Lehman triple-A status this time last year) was holding forth in the FT about why British treasury bonds are AAA-rated :
"Pierre Cailleteau, Team MD of Moody’s sovereign risk group, and Mares’ boss, says, safe havens’ triple-A status, “depends on two potentially unstable notions: continued public trust in government institutions, including the currency, and sustained inter-generational solidarity mechanisms.” It is the latter of these that gives the US, Germany, Japan and the UK such huge room for manoeuvre."
"public trust in government institutions" - how's that one going ?
As for "sustained inter-generational solidarity mechanisms" - well that phrase tends to imply that we're talking different generations of the same group of people. This will be less and less the case. On the one hand, you'll have a rapidly rising number of oldies who'll have no or few descendants, and a rapidly rising number of ethnic minority youngies who'll be heavily taxed to pay for a load of hideous old whities, who they'll have been taught at school are responsible for all the ills of the world.
We have the structural imbalance between the current public spend and the collapse in tax revenues - a massive problem all on its own. Then added to that you've got the demographic hit as the baby-boomer bulge start to retire, paying less and less tax while soaking up more and more on healthcare, social help etc.
"I warn you not to grow old ..." but that nice Mr Kinnock didn't offer any alternatives to that fate ...
We've had "strong government" for the last thirty years, and look where that's got us.
The reason we need PR is to break the Lab/Tory stranglehold that has damn near ruined this country. No more majorities from less than 50% of the vote, no more wasted votes because you happen to live in a "safe" seat.
There's no need to break the constituency link, I can still whinge to Tavish if I feel that way inclined.
The FPTP system was fine when the UK was a 2 party state, now it's broken.
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