I suppose one analogy you might use is, you know, you imagine that someone's eaten some bad food and they've got a dose of food poisoning. Some aspects of it just have to work their way through the system.
Can someone please explain how this is any different from "letting the recession run its course", which John Maples got into so much trouble for? The answer is that there is, of course, no difference. No difference at all. Except, of course, that it wasn't said by a Conservative. I look forward to the full media outcry today and calls from Labour politicians for him to apologise.
Fat chance.
Hattip: Paul Waugh.
So what was the embargoed topic you mentioned but couldn't mention last night Iain?
ReplyDeleteWill Young is to appear on Question Time!
ReplyDeleteIts worse than you state Iain.
ReplyDeleteIf Darling believes this then he also knows he's wasting most of the money he's borrowing right now for Gordon's "do something, anything with tax payers money!" election campaign.
he says "some aspects" and doesn't suggest standing aside and letting it happen.
ReplyDeleteCompletely different Iain, completely different.
ReplyDeleteAnd a particularly feeble observation when Darling and Brown are not only acting on the "food poisoning" but also being seen to be in the vanguard of effective purgative action globally.
There have still been no responses to my request for examples of significant Conservative "owned" economies that have escaped this toil and trouble. Without this Cam and GOO's attempts to suggest local ownership of the problem remain completely fatuous.
And Chris Paul's conversion into a parody of himself continues.
ReplyDeleteI love you Chris - can I have you for Christmas? You're a nutter!
ReplyDeleteSeriously - I think in 10 years or so when the dust has settled and only Chris is reading their memoirs or they've been paid a tenner from the Mirror - it'll turn out that Darling absolutely despises the clinically insane bully that is McIdiot.
Chris Paul - the point is about the debt bubble which the Bank of England is admitting today it should have done more about.
ReplyDeleteThat is even more true of the Treasury.
Lets see who was Chancellor since the debt bubble really got going in 2002 ?
The UK economy has only grown through debt (run up privately, by the state and companies) harvested via stealth taxation and blown on unreformed public services. Most new jobs have gone to immigrants and now the house built on the sand of debt is crashing down.
There is one man, and one man alone, who is responsible for the misery and destruction that his betrayal of his responsibilities has inflicted on this country. That man is Gordon Brown.
If he had a tiny shred of decency he would resign - but he's shameless New Labour and you guys just don't do honour. You just spin your giant pyramid scheme of debt in the hope of 5 more years gold plated pensions and opportunity to destroy our education, defence and traditions of our country.
But that was in April, Iain, when it didn't quite look like the entire world's economy was about to go in a tailspin.
ReplyDeleteSince then, to carry on the metaphor, the illness has got worse so Darling has given the patient expensive treatment while the Tories are still looking to treat it with hot coals.
The problem is that it won't just run its course & get back to normal. The problem is that our economy is far less productive for its size than the BRIC economies which are not in the alleged "world recession". he reason for that is the size of government & the burden of, usually eco-fascist, regulation it imposes on us far heavier.
ReplyDeleteThe only way out of such a structural problem is to reduce the size of non-productive government but this recession is only reducing the size of productive enterprises & in fact the size of government is increasing & being paid for by kiting more cheques.
Darling's comments are also, in my mind, close to Lamont's famous comment back when he was chancellor that the increase in unemployment during the recession in the 90's was a price worth paying. Darling's analogy assumes that allowing the poison to work its way thru the system will be beneficial to the patient despite the discomfort suffered because at the end of it he will be better. Presumably, therfore, worth enduring ...
ReplyDeleteTo Paul at 10:32am (22/12/08): Do you really think that media condemnation of Lamont or Maples would have been more forgiving if they had added the "some aspects" bit? I dont think so. And again you assume the Tory position is "Do Nothing". It isn't. Try not swallow every bit of propoganda that Mandelson feeds the BBC adn they dutifully repeat.
"The global economic downturn is gathering speed in Europe, Asia and the United States and while there is talk of a recovery in the second half of the year, it is far from a certainty, economists say.".
ReplyDeleteGlobal economic downturn is picking up speed
Chris Paul
ReplyDeleteI thought you claim to be independent? Why are you just trotting out the Party line, which we all know has been proved to be utter nonsense. I assume you know it too, it has been widely reported, but are too disingenuousand sycophantic to give up the "Labour Truth", even if is not true at all.
Just more of the spin, the little Labour elves running around repeating the garbage put out by the clueless fools at the top.
I find the "gotcha" approach tedious. Both sides should really stop doing this. Neither Maples nor Darling have said anything worthy of censure.
ReplyDeleteJimmy, my point exactly.
ReplyDeleteI think I've ate a recession, that must explain the last three days of agony.
ReplyDelete***I suppose one analogy you might use is, you know, you imagine that someone's eaten some bad food and they've got a dose of food poisoning. Some aspects of it just have to work their way through the system.***
ReplyDeleteDarling uses a good analogy here. I once got food poisoning from a dodgy kebab so I took out a crippling bank loan and gave the money to the kebab shop owner to pay to have his shop cleaned.
I did briefly consider prosecuting the health and safety officer at the local council for not enforcing stricter standards but decided against this after I read in the papers that he was a genius at cleanliness.
It's refreshing to see at least one right-wing blog continuing to expose hypocrisy and double standards over this Christmas period.
ReplyDeleteUnlike a certain Guido Fawkes, who doesn't seem to be doing anything right now...
Iain is the thinking man's Guido.
ReplyDelete