Can a left wing Government solve a debt crisis?

[Brendan]

May I for a moment interrupt you all as you call one another stupid? I feel no need to get involved in that particular debate as I tend to agree with everyone on it.

Getting back to that nice graph that Huguenot posted. I?m no history expert but isn?t the significant and prolonged fall in national debt from the early 50s until the 70s over the period when the country was investing most heavily in building and growing the Welfare State, that most heinous of the left wing horrors that has blighted this good country over the last 100 years?

Coincidentally there do seem to be some nice big spiky bits when we were fighting wars. Wars are great because they aren?t all lefty and shit. We get to be tough and sensible and all the machinery, flag waving and death makes us feel like we very big willies indeed.

[BrandNewGuy]

Brendan Wrote:

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> I?m no history expert but isn?t the

> significant and prolonged fall in national debt

> from the early 50s until the 70s over the period

> when the country was investing most heavily in

> building and growing the Welfare State, that most

> heinous of the left wing horrors that has blighted

> this good country over the last 100 years?

But for most of the time "From the early 50s until the 70s" we had Conservative governments. Spending on the Welfare State has risen under all governments since the War. You can argue whether that's good or bad, but the real differences between the two parties in this respect have been small.

[Brendan]

Ah I see so debt can only dealt with by committed and sustained investment in public services and infrastructure carried out by a right wing government.

[BrandNewGuy]

Brendan Wrote:

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> Ah I see so debt can only dealt with by committed

> and sustained investment in public services and

> infrastructure carried out by a right wing

> government.

No, that doesn't follow, alas. There are lots of other factors that affect debt apart from welfare spending - tax rates, rates of economic growth, non-welfare spending etc.

[Brendan]

But...

Mick Mac Wrote:

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> Or is there more precedent for a left wing

> government taking the tax and spend approach that

> leads to increasing debt.

[DJKillaQueen]

It is certainly true for the last two governments that one cut investment and then other tried to make up for it - Education and the NHS being good examples. In reality what should have happened is that one should have invested more than it did so that the other would need to invest less. Those are the kind of swings that we see in normal times between the two main UK parties, but one is a needed reaction to the other. Two extremes always trying to cancel each other out.

[mockney piers]

"Two extremes"

I'd be hard pressed to call the differences between new labour and the tories 'extremes' ;)

In practice they are politically millimetres apart though the rhetoric aimed at appeasing traditional support whilst in reality selling themselves to the vast majority straddling the centre ground differs slightly in tone.

[DJKillaQueen]

Hmm manybe 'extremes' wasn't the right word but you know what I meant, sort of. Totally agree they both compete for the same centre ground of politics though.

[acm]

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[mockney piers]

PLus the right=warmonger thing is also a bit of a myth, I think left wing governments go to war more often, maybe it's a hint of that 'we are at war with Eurasia, we have always etc' mentality. Blair certainly was partial to a good things exploding episode (though I guess see earlier points about him not really being left wing in the slightest)

[Brendan]

Typical lefty arrogance. I suppose now you are suggesting that it is all some sort of nonsense, much as you think of everything else in the world no doubt, created by the simple to simplify things?

We have a system of categorisation which works so pick a side so that people know what to think of you.

Next you will be suggesting that the human brain works as it does by sorting things into categories and that our entire cognitive functioning and perception of ourselves and the world is due to a billion, billion little presumed categorisations and that consequently we really need to think about how we think before we think about using thinking to come to things like ?opinions?.

That type of rubbish will never a discriminating man make.

Your suggestions are that of a dissident who is at best petulant and at worst a threat to the system we have worked so hard to achieve.

[acm]

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[Brendan]

Most at that recklessly subversive Mockney Piers actually but you, and indeed all who sail this mortal wreck, will do well to heed my words.

[new mother]

There is currently a big difference between certain elements of each party on whether it would be better to target inflation and take the medicine, plunging the country into recession OR whether to keep interest rates low and qe high in the hope that this maintains employment levels. Economics v social considerations I suppose but the divide is not necessarily Tory/ labour.

[acm]

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[Huguenot]

Oh dear

[Ridgley]

Can anyone at this present time?