Thursday, 31 July 2014

LibDems have saved the economy. Hurrah!

Recently at Subordinate Central LibDen AM made a valiant attempt   to claim credit for her party in the news that figures published last week show that the UK’s economy is now 0.2% ahead of the level it was before the 2008 financial crash.
When the Liberal Democrats helped form the Coalition Government, our number one objective was to get our economy back on track. Now, because of the Liberal Democrats, the UK economy is the fastest growing in the western world.
No-one can deny that the Coalition Government inherited a complete disaster of an economy. The Liberal Democrats recognised that tough decisions had to be made to fix our economy and to cut the UK’s mammoth deficit, but we also appreciate that this must be done in a fair way. That is why, for instance, we have ensured that over 150,000 of the lowest paid workers in Wales will no longer pay a single penny of Income Tax.
Our economy is on the right track, but of course that is no excuse for complacency. There is still a long way to go and the Liberal Democrats will continue to work to build an even stronger economy and ensure the UK’s dramatic growth continues.]
So that's it financial crisis over LibDems have saved us 



Except that the reality is somewhat different and we have yet to face the consequences of the savage ideological cuts imposed on us  by the Tory/LibDem coalition something Ms Parrot is unlikely to admit her Party's responsibility for.

Today's wasting Mule reports that 
  worsening financial climate for Wales’ as  councils will see services disappear across the country as local government continues its swingeing cuts, a former council leader has warned.It comes after Newport council said it will have to find £13m in cuts next year – some £8m more it had previously expected.
The authority’s deputy leader Ray Truman said the authority will have to stop providing some services that it has traditionally performed, but can no longer pay for.
Newport’s announcement comes in the wake of a letter from Local Government Minister Lesley Griffiths earlier this year, warning that councils should be ready for cuts of up to 4.5%.
Cardiff council has said it is working on the assumption it would have to save up to £45.4m during 2015-16, with calls from the authority for the Welsh Government to give the city greater recognition as Wales’ capital by letting it keep more of the business rates collected locally.
Local government consultant  (again I ask what is that) and former leader of Bridgend council Jeff Jones said:
 “It’s a disaster waiting to happen. I can’t see how they can continue to protect school budgets, who have to take a hit. Leisure you can forget about. It’s real dire stuff.“The Welsh Government is putting all their eggs into the National Health Service budget. I don’t think people really understand what the fallout will be in the long term, where people will look on in astonishment at services that are no longer there.”

Never-mind the cliche the true extent of how the Tory/Lib Dems cuts will ruin our societies will not be fully  seen until well after the election.

Which might see the LibDems in coalition with Labour  which may se them condeming policies they voted for since 2010.

Oh hanf on they already started with the Bedroom Tax.

Having a view that you can measure a Government success on such dubious economic measures is simplistic.

John Dixon at Borthlas   recently pointed out that in relation to the Welsh economy 

The Tories point to every failure in economic policy as being down to the Welsh government and claim the latest news as a success for UK policy; whilst Labour point to every failure as being the fault of the UK government, and claim the news as a success for their policies.
They can’t both be right of course – but that doesn’t mean that they can’t both be wrong. I don’t simply mean that the policy pursued by the UK government would have been much the same if Labour were in power (although it would have been) or even the same thing in reverse in Cardiff Bay (although it’s easier to conceive of a Labour UK government than of a Tory Welsh government). I mean rather that economic policies pursued by governments at both ends of the M4 might actually have had a negligible impact on the outcome. Governments like to pretend they’re in control when things are going well, and pretend that things are out of their hands when things are going badly. I suspect they’re right on the latter, but simply deliberately understate the applicability of that conclusion.

But of course as Eluned Parrot can do is claim credit for good news   and blame bad news on their predecessors or events.

1 comment:

Robert Tyler said...

The phrase " clutching at straws" springs to mind. I have commented numerous times on LIb Dem blogs but have never once been published. All, comments have been rational and polite if condemnatory. What are they for?