In the weeks after he took office, George Osborne justified his austerity programme by claiming that Britain was on “the brink of bankruptcy”. He told the Conservative conference in October 2010: “The good news is that we are in government after 13 years of a disastrous Labour administration that brought our country to the brink of bankrutcy.”
The Conservatives have constantly tried to portray the Labour party as less than competent with the economy, and more recently the government made facetious jibes about “magic money trees” being required to fund Labour’s promising anti-austerity manifesto, which backfired. In fact the Conservatives have even claimed, rather ludicrously, that the opposition is “dangerous”.
However, back in 2012, Robert Chote, head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) formally rebuked Osborne for his intentionally misleading “misinformation” and dismissed with scorn the “danger of insolvency” myth that has been endlessly perpetuated by the Conservatives.
It’s worth remembering that the Conservatives’ historic record with the economy isn’t a good one. Margaret Thatcher presided over a deep recession because of her authoritarian introduction of neoliberal policies, regardless of the social costs. Her only solution to an increasingly damaged economy was more neoliberalism. John Major also presided over a recession, and who could forget “Black Wednesday“.
The global recession of 2007/8 would have happened regardless of which political party was in office in the UK. Osborne had also committed to matching Labour’s spending plans, but he later criticised them.
The financial crash process was started by the neoliberal Thatcher/Reagan administrations with the deregulation of the finance sector. We were out of recession in the UK by the last quarter of 2009. By 2011, the Conservatives fiscal policy of austerity put us back in recession.
It’s good to see Osborne finally concede that there was no basis for his ridiculous claims in 2010, in a recent interview with Andrew Neil, for The Spectator‘s Coffee House Shots (12 October).
It follows that there was absolutely no justification for the Conservatives’ incredibly harsh and damaging neoliberal austerity programme.
You can listen to the full interview with George Osborne and Andrew Neil by clicking here.
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Reblogged this on sdbast.
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Reblogged this on Worldtruth.
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thanks for this, as always. hope you like my osborne song. its been voted as the best song about george osborne in the universe. the fact that it’s the only song about osborne is irelevant well it is to me anyway.
https://philbadfactor.wordpress.com/
i will be updating the song soon hopefully with a better recording of it and some improved lyrics.
i will put my other 2 anti tory songs on soon as well.
“jimmy savile government”, and “tory nightmare welfare scroungers (living on your tax)”
don’t forget to turn up your speakers !
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I think it is highly relevant that Osborne is no longer in politics as the Neo-Liberal agenda is near completion, they have sold off most Britain’s assets to the private sector and the commanding heights of the economy lie in private hands. Now as we see and hear him say he is being rewarded for his efforts in government which is paying him back very handsomely.
Clearly that audience was not a cross section of the public and he escaped from any real critical examination. The whole fiasco of austerity was the guise to enable the dismantling of the state and that was the real crux of the debate, which never surfaced. It is also the driving force throughout Europe and the rest of the world which is why we see reactionary forces gaining strength. People suffering under oppressive regimes peddling austerity look inwardly and look for scapegoats rather than attacking the those that oppress them.
What this video did touch on was that QE delivers security and profit to the few who make money from investing in the city, and that they are the only ones to benefit, against the promise of what it was supposed to achieve which was to reflate the economy after the crash.
What we need people in this country to understand is all money is created out of thin air, and that politicians can use that money in any way it chooses, so far it has chosen to protect the financial assets of the few and imposed the tax raising burden on the many of which the weakest suffer the most…. with all the previous support mechanisms being taken away, hence the expression socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
We have to get the message out, that we can afford our public services, we can afford free education and the NHS, all that is standing in our way is Neo-Liberal politicians who serve the corporate sector.
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Reblogged this on BertieS.
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Reblogged this on | truthaholics and commented:
“The financial crash process was started by the neoliberal Thatcher/Reagan administrations with the deregulation of the finance sector. We were out of recession in the UK by the last quarter of 2009. By 2011, the Conservatives fiscal policy of austerity put us back in recession.
It’s good to see Osborne finally concede that there was no basis for his ridiculous claims in 2010, in a recent interview with Andrew Neil, for The Spectator‘s Coffee House Shots (12 October).
It follows that there was absolutely no justification for the Conservatives’ incredibly harsh and damaging neoliberal austerity programme.”
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All the Tories are good at are lies, corruption and division.
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What a shock NOT
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This should be all over the news as its been a lie for years Tories are lowest of the low nasty party why should they get away with this its a disgrace
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