Comments on: More about getting out of the economic mess

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:00:32 +0000

I have a book on football at home (can’t remember the name) where Gordon has written a chapter and sings sweet praise of his “beloved Scotland” and how happy he was at beating England.

By: DavidB

DavidB — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:55:49 +0000

He has no “beloved Scotland”. He wraps himself in the Union flag, and is as Scottish as it suits him for electoral purpopses. You have to agree to keep him or we’ll refuse independence.

By: Mike Stallard

Mike Stallard — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:30:31 +0000

You are, of course, right! Only wishing….
But, as we both know, the treaty is being put into practice as we speak. Foreign policy and diplomatic niceties, the fix for the new President, the appointment of the Commissioners, the Europolice and the Justice system, including extradition, are all in place already.

By: jean baker

jean baker — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:56:10 +0000

De-centralization, locally controlled democracy is the main difference between David Cameron and Blair’s aims which he passed to Brown.

You appear to have no recollection of the ‘winter of discontent’, nor the economic mess Mrs Thatcher inherited – Labour had reduced Great Britain to a ‘laughing stock’.

Economic growth was at 12.5% when Blair was elected; latest reports are growth diminished to – 30%.

Borrowings at taxpayers’ expense continues to fund PFI’s and other increasingly state controlled public services.

By: Denis Cooper

Denis Cooper — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:40:40 +0000

Yes, originally the Treasury was going to provide the Bank with taxpayers’ money to buy commercial assets; that had barely got started before it was agreed that the asset purchases would be funded by newly created “central bank money”, instead of taxpayers’ money, and would include both commercial assets and gilts; but in fact since then only about 3% of the newly created money has been used to buy commercial assets, and about 97% has been spent buying up gilts.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/apf/index.htm#giltresults

Quantity of assets purchased by the creation of central bank reserves, as of June 25th: £99,094 million.

Which break down as follows:

Commercial Paper £1,950 million
Corporate Bonds £776 million
Gilts £96,368 million = 97% of total

By: James Morrison

James Morrison — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:08:10 +0000

Yes, admittedly there are obvious differences between Blair and Cameron, Europe being one (though I am not convinced that when push comes to shove, DC will actually want the UK to resign it’s EU membership, but that is purely my opinion). Don’t forget, it was David Cameron himself who described himself as the “Heir to Blair”.

It seems to me that the Tories are still somewhat split over some issues. Issues such as grammar schools (DC is certainly against them, favouring the disasterous comprehensive schooling system), marital privileges (tax breaks etc) and political correctness, to name a few, and DC comes across on the left-wing of all these issues. Plus, of course, he voted in favour of Blair’s war in Iraq.

I could be wrong, but I cannot find information on any laws that have been introduced by Labour governments which have subsequently been repealed when the Tories regained power. This country has been steered in a left-liberal/socialist direction since the 60′s, and DC is unlikely to be the person who would make any radical changes to that.

By: Denis Cooper

Denis Cooper — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:12:58 +0000

Yes, it’s good, and should be widely circulated.

By: Waramess

Waramess — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:54:46 +0000

I believe the original idea was not for the Bank to buy Government debt to fund new Government spending but for the freshly printed money to flow on directly to the commercial sector through the conduit of the banking system to ease the effect of the credit squeeze.

You are right however that the government seem to have conveniently changed the already flawed economic thinking behind QE with the result that the BofE now prints money to buy gilts, effectively and almost directly from the government.

Monty Python is still with us.

By: alan jutson

alan jutson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:59:40 +0000

Be good if it was in Public, so we could all see the real mess we are in.

Good idea, Public Inquiry into how the UK got into massive debt.

By: jean baker

jean baker — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:48:27 +0000

David Cameron supports the principles of democracy; Bliar is ‘killing time’ at vast expense to taxpayers waiting for the EU Presidency – EU’s aim being a Federal State.

The men are ‘polar opposites’.