Sometimes governments get what they ask for

The Labour government is getting several of the things it said it wanted, but discovering they are not what they were cracked up to be

They said they wanted homes to be more affordable. Now they have house prices in free fall, they are not so sure it was a good idea.

They said they wanted fewer lorries and cars on the road. Now a deep recession is bringing that about, they are in a panic about it.

They said they wanted to balance up north and south, to stop the south outpacing the north as it did in the credit boom years. Now the southern economy is being sandbagged by the credit crunch the government is worried by the impact.

They said they wanted us to generate less CO2. Now our industrial demand is collapsing, the CO2 output will contract. They are no longer so keen to bring it down, if that is what it takes to do so.

10 Comments

  1. Brian Tomkinson
    February 21, 2009

    It just goes to show how useless, interfering, busybody governments, such as this calamitous one, really are. A much smaller role for government from the next Conservative administration please.

  2. AlanC
    February 21, 2009

    Very true. I do wonder why AGW followers are not cheerleading the global downturn and factoring it into their computer equations. Surely it is exactly the scenario they seek. Keep up the excellent blog.

  3. Kit
    February 21, 2009

    They said they wanted to reduce poverty and by their favourite measure, relative poverty, they are succeeding with all the rich folk now on the dole. Why aren’t they cheering?

    1. APL
      February 22, 2009

      AlanC: “Very true. I do wonder why AGW followers are not cheerleading the global downturn and factoring it into their computer equations.”

      Odd isn’t it? We won’t see many Greenoids demonstrating in support of higher unemployment.

      The goal of reducing ‘carbon’ is nonsensical and … basically, stupid. But it seems to have become part of the Greenoid catechism.

      Note to Mr. Redwood, during you informal ‘influencing from within’ meetings you might occasionally have with Mr Cameron, kindly try to find out what position Tory contributor and prospective Tory candidate Mr Zak Goldsmith has toward the green policy of deliberately increasing unemployment in order to ‘reduce Carbon’?

      One other Question to Mr Redwood.

      We have heard in the press just recently, about an adviser to Mr Brown defecting to the Tory party.

      http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/3358091/freud-defects-to-the-tories.thtml

      Please help me understand how such a staunch Labour supporter can simply flit across the floor. And join the Tory ranks?

      If such a man can flit this way, surely you can expect him to flit the opposite direction when it suits him too.

      Tell us, please, does the Tory party have ANYONE AT ALL that it can rely on to put forward sound Conservative principles, come hell or hight water? We know the so called ‘Tory Big Cats’, Clarke and Hestletine are equally at home in, for example Tony Blairs big socialist tent, and on occasion have preferred being socialist supporters to being Tory supporters. So I am curious as a potential Tory voter. If I vote Tory at the next election, will I get a Tory administration, or just ‘Blue Labour’?

      Or should the Tory Party be renamed the “Vicar of Bray” party?

      1. APL
        February 22, 2009

        Kit: “They said they wanted to reduce poverty and by their favourite measure, relative poverty,”

        Yes, well they have succeeded in that aim too. Relative to other countries we are ALL much poorer too.

        [Sarcasm]
        Well done, Mr Brown. No more Tory Boom and Bust. Just no more economy either.
        [/Sarcasm]

  4. Max Horn
    February 21, 2009

    The ‘law of unforseen consequences’ is not one most politicians are familiar with.

  5. Neil Craig
    February 21, 2009

    A lot of “green” politicians of all parties have been lecturing us for years on how growth is “unsustainable” & we would all be happier with less wealth. I remember being present at a debate when one of Scptland’s official Green MSPs said the sole reason his party supported the EU was because their regulatory system was slowing & would ultimately stop the “continous economic expansion” we were suffering from. I agree with the fact but reach the opposite conclusion.

  6. chris southern
    February 21, 2009

    And we have just over a year left of this excuse of a goverment, Hannibal didn’t do as much damage as this bunch.
    They may look up to Fabius but they forget one thing, Fabius studied a man who new more than he did and learned from it, he didn’t blindly blunder about as he wouldn’t have succeeded if he followed that path.

    I hate (not dislike, but hate) this goverment and what it has done to the UK. (never voted for them and never would in the future either, they are a cancer)
    They have made innocent people criminals, taxed more into poverty than ever before and have refused to accept their role in the whole sordid mess.

    I can’t write any more as it just turns into insults and swearing,

  7. Lance Grundy
    February 21, 2009

    …and they’re still at it. Just this afternoon I saw a report on BBC News 24 saying that the government is “concerned that Britain is in the grip of a throw-away fashion culture” and wants people to “re-use their clothes more” to reduce “the 2 million tons of textiles that end up in landfill.”

    Nothing wrong with that you might think – but Labour can’t have it both ways. Less “throw-away fashion” and people reusing their clothes more, will mean tens of thousands of shop assistants out of work here in Britain, clothing retailers share prices nailed to the floor and hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest people being consigned to the scrap heap as the factories that make the “throw-away fashion” close.

  8. The Nugget
    February 22, 2009

    I do not know which is the uglier sight: a government preening itself in the good years or one floundering in the bad.
    Sweep away the nailbars ,the tanning salons, the health centres,the cheap clothes and gadget shops,the financial advisers,the insurance salesmen. Lets have an economy that makes machine tools,grows most of its own food,builds long-lasting and well-made houses,makes affordable and economic cars ,provides quality health care and good education. Reward the educators,farmers and the engineers.

    Sorry, had a bit of a moment there. It sounds simple but I guess it isnt.

    I forgot the publicans…I am just off to give one my unqualified financial support.

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