A boom and bust economy
I intend to write a long piece on this subject for the New European this week but I can’t help but mention the Mail on Sunday headline yesterday. Apparently Jeremy Hunt wants to copy Nigel Lawson and create a Lawson boom for the British economy.
It seems the Mail has forgotten that the Lawson boom was an unmitigated disaster, leading to a house price boom and then a terrible crash which put millions into negative equity for years. It also led to an unsustainable boost for the rich, slashing the top rate of income tax and letting a bunch of red braced Porche drivers wreck the economy.
It is however true that Margaret Thatcher managed to win an election before the house of cards collapsed, so that is OK then. We cannot afford another Lawson boom and why any sensible newspaper let alone a Chancellor should be contemplating one is beyond me.
What is really going to happen is that the Chancellor has massively increased taxes and they are bringing in more money than he expected, a lot of it from the poor. He also plans to slash government spending again and again, the complete opposite of what the country needs.
He is then going to try to win the election for the Tories by giving some of that money back, as tax cuts. The tory press will hail this as a new dawn, predict a soaring economy and hope that is enough to get this bunch of stupid, cynical, schismatic shysters another 5 years before the economy collapses.
We cannot afford a Lawson boom, we have lots of things that need money spending on them and we certainly cannot afford another 5 years of Tory government.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media