Amid all the huffing and puffing in post-revolution Britain, two really standout pieces of commentary: Martin Kettle in the Guardian, who says, among other things, "No Conservative leader has taken such a risk for such essentially liberal ends in living memory," and Martin Wolf in the Financial Times, who says, "All British political careers end in failure. Mr Brown’s is a grim reminder of this truth. But it is far too easy to blame him alone for the UK’s current plight. The truth, I would argue, is that his biggest error was to believe in the conventional wisdom about the prospects for durable economic stability, the robustness of modern financial markets and, surprisingly perhaps, the strength of the post-Thatcher UK economy. He then doubled up on this bet by building his plans for public spending on the assumption that the good times would roll on forever. Mr Brown’s boasts of durable prosperity proved to be based on evanescent success. The inconvenient truth is that the UK economy proved far more fragile than almost anybody with influence had believed. If the new government is to succeed, it must dare to confront this sad truth."
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Seeing Through the Fog
Amid all the huffing and puffing in post-revolution Britain, two really standout pieces of commentary: Martin Kettle in the Guardian, who says, among other things, "No Conservative leader has taken such a risk for such essentially liberal ends in living memory," and Martin Wolf in the Financial Times, who says, "All British political careers end in failure. Mr Brown’s is a grim reminder of this truth. But it is far too easy to blame him alone for the UK’s current plight. The truth, I would argue, is that his biggest error was to believe in the conventional wisdom about the prospects for durable economic stability, the robustness of modern financial markets and, surprisingly perhaps, the strength of the post-Thatcher UK economy. He then doubled up on this bet by building his plans for public spending on the assumption that the good times would roll on forever. Mr Brown’s boasts of durable prosperity proved to be based on evanescent success. The inconvenient truth is that the UK economy proved far more fragile than almost anybody with influence had believed. If the new government is to succeed, it must dare to confront this sad truth."
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Cameron's slogan of something along the lines of 'Britain is open for business' seems to demonstrate that he has a vision of restoring the country to a former glory. The budget deficit is going to be a difficult enabler in achieving this aim.
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