How Labour Claim They Will Kick Start Growth
It’s informative to put two of the BBC’s stories about the Labour conference together. Here’s the first paragraph of the main story.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls is calling for a two-year stamp duty holiday to help kick-start growth – paid for by the sale of 4G mobile frequencies.
And then you read what Nick Robinson says in this piece.
What, if anything, does Labour’s latest economic announcement tell us? Some argue almost nothing. I believe something rather more than that.
This is the case for the prosecution: Ed Balls is only telling us what he would do now if he was chancellor, not what he will do if he becomes chancellor in 2015.
By then, the proceeds of the 4G sale will not be his to spend – the money will already have been accounted for by his predecessor. The promise to increase capital spending by £3bn – if it survives into Labour’s manifesto – is also meaningless, goes the argument, unless you know what the baseline is going to be ie £3bn on top of what.
Thus, Labour is merely coming up with an eye-catching announcement which confirms what we already know – Ed Balls would spend a bit more than George Osborne if he were in office now.
That all sounds like they’re spinning again.
Basically, it’s just a load of old Balls.
The Anonymous Widower 
People seem to miss the point that it was labour who got us into this mess in the first place!
Comment by Liz P | October 1, 2012 |
The problem is that it was RBS and BoS that were the two worst banks and Brown couldn’t afford to lose the votes north of the border, by letting them go bust. As it is their solution ruined Lloyds TSB as well.
Comment by AnonW | October 1, 2012 |