I've said it many times before but I'll say it again regardless: Anyone who seriously thought that
any government - even the most amazing administration ever, let alone this sorry excuse for a proper Tory government, with
this Chancellor - was capable of turning things around in two years, from the bombed out, dead-and-buried economy starting position, was/is truly living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Seriously, what were they left to work with, post the "There's no money!!111(tm)", Scorched Earth Labour era?
It's hardly as though Cameron & Co. could simply magic up hundreds of billions of pounds from thin air (although, that's pretty much what QE is, but printing money has serious downsides of course) or reinstate the vast swathes of GOOD manufacturing industry that this country lost under Labour, with its blind, idiotic faith in the City Slickers; its belief that it alone had killed the Economic Cycle; its presiding over the worst property, private and public debt bubble ever, allied to the most catastrophic governmental and institutional regulatory failure of the Banking Sector the world has ever seen; it presiding over the worst slide in educational standards we have yet seen, with young people now - equipped with a tally of quite worthless GCSEs demanding "respect", with employers totally unwilling to take them on, even with a £2500 tax free bribe per head, plus training grants; its mortgaging of the next three generations with governmental debt that will be a drag on whatever post-apocalypse, post-globalisation economy "we" are able to muster between us (well, at least those of us who can be arsed to do so), in this Brave New World?
Alternatively, where does the electorate think we would be now, had Labour remained in charge - with Brown or Balls at the economic helm, the very architects of our demonstrable, with the full benefit of hindsight, collective doom?
I'm no fan of the Coalition but
at least they have restored a barely sufficient modicum of credibility for this country in the world money markets; we can still borrow at relatively favourable interest rates, unlike the bulk of our hapless EU state peers. It could've been better, most certainly, but it could've been much, much worse too.
This sort of syndrome reminds me of Teen Angel #2, when she was about 8.
We'd play games of Monopoly with family and friends, back in the day. Bless her little cotton socks, she's quite the worst, sorest loser I've ever known (worse even than me), so, when it became clear she was not going to win, she'd "hand the controls" to someone else, then blame them when they inevitable lost about three rolls of the dice later, claiming they were a "terrible player". But of course, if your legacy is a metaphorical mortaged Old Kent Road and about £30 in cash, and your opponents are polishing their hotels on Mayfair and Park Lane, you can hardly blame the hapless soul who has the unenviable, and impossible task of trying to rectify the situation.
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Beware of gavia articulata oculos...
Dr Lave wrote:
Of course, he's normally wrong but
interestingly wrong