tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31588679.post7598379479727220843..comments2023-10-21T16:25:58.899+01:00Comments on Three Score Years And Ten: Shame On ByersHarry Barneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600933854461096745noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31588679.post-49146172364692488562009-04-29T21:09:00.000+01:002009-04-29T21:09:00.000+01:00denverthen : I don't accept Thatcherism nor the in...denverthen : I don't accept Thatcherism nor the inheritence of Thatcherism which includes Blair/Brown New Labourism. The worst features are currently being reflected by Stephen Byers. It is "enterprise and aspiration" (under a free hand) which have got us into the current international economic slump. Never have the objective circumstances been more suitable for equalitarian, collective, democratic and socialist solutions to tackle the economic, climatic and social problems the world faces. Unfortunately, never have the subjective circumstances of what goes on in most "opinion leaders" heads been more of a problem. On the one hand we have fruit-cake terrorists and on the other hand we have counter-productive nonsense such as "if you punish enterprise and aspiration with confiscatory taxation, everybody, rich and poor, suffers." If you claim that what I say is Stalinist and depends on brainwahing, then you have missed the point.Harry Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01833380054575757928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31588679.post-60286881383265179882009-04-29T01:59:00.000+01:002009-04-29T01:59:00.000+01:00Again, I'm afraid this is merely your own party's ...Again, I'm afraid this is merely your own party's (historical) propaganda speaking.<br /><br />The recession of 1991-2 was caused by inflation, sure. And the Tory government (particularly Alan Walters - but not Lawson) should be held to account for allowing the money supply to get out of control. They should have raised interest rates into the bubble in '89, as Lawson wanted. And just as Brown should have done in 2005 to deflate an even bigger one. Of course he wouldn't - it was an election year. But the criminal thing is that he then went on deliberately to inflate the bubble even further while deficit-spending, thus leaving us wide-open when the banks HE deregulated to the point of insanity (not Thatcher or Lawson) failed. <br /><br />Fortunately, with a new government, the impact on Britain of his diabolical mismanagement might just about, with luck and reason, be limited to 'disastrous', rather than 'catastrophic'. <br /><br />But the central principle holds true: if you punish enterprise and aspiration with confiscatory taxation, everybody, rich and poor, suffers. There is nothing fair about that, something Blair's Labour party apparently had learned. <br /><br />But it's a deep lesson that the body politic of this country learned the hard way in the 1970s and early 80s. Labour ditching it for whatever reason won't change that. Hence the slump in Brown-Labour's popularity. His - and Labour's - (undeserved, it seems) economic credibility is shot-through, and rightly-so.<br /><br />I'm rather saddened that a man of your clear intellect and integrity can't seem to accept these realities.<br /><br />Best wishes to you sir, nonetheless.Jon Lishmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07272058035800593800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31588679.post-75672947690944930952009-04-28T22:23:00.000+01:002009-04-28T22:23:00.000+01:00denverthen : The 1988 40% tax rate lasted for 21 y...denverthen : The 1988 40% tax rate lasted for 21 years, not just until the next budget. Lawson's budget included the deregulation of the financial sector and led to the (aspirational?) overheating of the economy and rapid inflation. So he resigned. We then went into recession under Lamont. Brown ran the economy in the Blair years and he must have been the person who "comprehended these not-so-complicated economic realities" which then enabled us to make our own contribution to the wider economic collapse. That the very medicine that led to the collapse will somehow now cure us, is a peculiar thought.Harry Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01833380054575757928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31588679.post-48194046556424048172009-04-28T19:46:00.000+01:002009-04-28T19:46:00.000+01:00Oh dear. The left myth about the 40% tax rate in 1...Oh dear. The left myth about the 40% tax rate in 1988 lives on!<br /><br />In fact, the overall tax take from higher earners leaped from 19% to 26% of total revenues after Lawson's famous (balanced) budget - leaving more room for tax cuts for lower earners and allowing enterprise and productivity to flourish in an aspirational culture.<br /><br />As Rafa Benitez would say: "Fact!"<br /><br />So your 'hammer the rich' nonsense actually means 'hammer everyone'.<br /><br />Perhaps you could explain why the Labour Party under Blair appeared to comprehend these not-so complicated economic realities, but Labour under Brown hasn't.<br /><br />Has Labour got dumber? Or is it just desperate to appeal to the anti-capitalist 'core vote'.<br /><br />On the evidence of your post, I'd say both.Jon Lishmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07272058035800593800noreply@blogger.com