A hugely significant statement from a man whose party has opposed every single piece of supposed ‘bureaucratic red tape’ that had a true purpose of bringing some degree of control, albeit limited, to the unabated free-market economy that Blair’s government inherited and which Browns’ kept on feeding.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/04/brendan-barber-public-sector-cuts
However within a matter of weeks the clear blue water of left and right (big state v small state) re-emerged. Cameron neatly blamed the whole recession not on the toxic debt riddled free-market economy but on well......New Labour’s commitment for a bigger public sector. It was a quantum leap from Cameron’s starting position of tacitly supporting calls for greater regulation to one of decrying big state and calling for swingeing cuts to the public sector.
Coupled with the Tory rally cry of a ‘Broken Britain’, our wonderfully unquestioning media lapped up the new pitch made by the Tories and seemingly without question have shifted the debate to public sector spending and by default the need for cuts. This is a silly and economically unsustainable argument and we need to learn the lessons of history.
The world economy is now arguably in a state of fragile recovery though the UK lags behind the USA and significant parts of Europe. In Franklin Roosevelt’s post depression economy his administration sought to restore public finances through finally bringing into control public spending and increases taxes. In 1937 America the economy just could not withstand these changes and the US economy plummeted back into recession.
And herein lies the nonsense of cutting public spending during a recession or recovery period. Public sector employees pay taxes and spend money. Unemployment is as much a curse to the economy if it is public sector worker on the dole as it is for a private sector worker – the false distinctions played out by the media are a disgraceful attempt to play to the malcontents of the Daily Mail and Daily Express and the hideous perception of public sector workers supping tea with their feet on the desk.
If private businesses struggle to sustain in a fragile economic environment the public pound provides much needed local resilience. The public pound is the difference between surviving a few punches from a world class boxer and bouncing back up to being knocked out in the first round. Economies need the steel resilience created by the public sector. Without public spending, especially at a time of recession, economies will weaken and crumble. We need to learn the lessons of history.
If Cameron’s policies are given the opportunity to be realised through a Tory Government then watch the dole queues lengthen, treasury receipts from tax and VAT fall and a real possibility of the 1930s soup kitchens making an appearance in a town near you.
