Common as Mook
Not Posh as Fook
- Jul 26, 2004
- 5,631
This.
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OMG David Starkey is on Question Time again...
- Thread starter Titanic
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Woodingdeanseagulls
New member
- Jan 4, 2012
- 10
You can add Poly Toynbee to that list - I despise that woman!
I do really like him as a Historian and I think he made some good points on question time last night................ however he came across as the only angry gay in the village sadly all the good points were lost in the self rightist pompous delivery directed at every one including all the panel members, David Dimbleby and members of the audience.............................. great entertainment that's what I pay my licence fee to see
ChilternGull
New member
I know I will sound like a boor but wish to set the record straight. The last Labour Government did not create the deficit. All governments since the time of the Napoleonic Wars have run a deficit and in fact the national debt fell during the years of the last government as it used increased levels of income to reduce the level of debt. What did for us and nearly every other country in the industrialised western world was the sudden collaspe of the mortgage market in the United States. This exposed banks all around the globe to varying degrees - levels of corporate tax income fell but to support the customers of banks (you and me) and to maintain public services our government, along with most others in the western world, had to borrow. If governments had not acted in this way we would have experienced a 1920s/1930s type depression.
If fhe argument is that Brown/Blair should have seen the collaspe coming well they were not alone - nor did any government elsewhere - including the right of centre ones in the US, Germany and France. I also do not recall any political parties in the UK campaiging for tighter bank regulation through the last 10 years - in fact quite the opposite.
The countries that survived the downturn best are the Scandinavian ones and they have higher levels of tax take in return for higher levels of public provision plus China!
Frankly as someone who has studies economics it is interesting that the US which took a more Keynsian approach has emerged from recession more quickly than the EU countries who have taken an austerity approach. Austerity in the 1930s went on for over 10 years and economies did not really recover before the 1950s post WW2 rebuilding.
I apologise if this sounds like a bit of a rant but wanted the debate to move on from a simplistic and ill informed blame game. Our current PM was, of course, one of the architects of "Black Wednesday" in the 1990s so do not believe anybody has all the answers even if they sound as if they do.
If fhe argument is that Brown/Blair should have seen the collaspe coming well they were not alone - nor did any government elsewhere - including the right of centre ones in the US, Germany and France. I also do not recall any political parties in the UK campaiging for tighter bank regulation through the last 10 years - in fact quite the opposite.
The countries that survived the downturn best are the Scandinavian ones and they have higher levels of tax take in return for higher levels of public provision plus China!
Frankly as someone who has studies economics it is interesting that the US which took a more Keynsian approach has emerged from recession more quickly than the EU countries who have taken an austerity approach. Austerity in the 1930s went on for over 10 years and economies did not really recover before the 1950s post WW2 rebuilding.
I apologise if this sounds like a bit of a rant but wanted the debate to move on from a simplistic and ill informed blame game. Our current PM was, of course, one of the architects of "Black Wednesday" in the 1990s so do not believe anybody has all the answers even if they sound as if they do.