Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Scathing Rebuttal of Obama/Brown Economic policy



Daniel Hannah tells it like it is to Gordon Brown and the absurd spending plans now being passed.

" Prime Minister, I see you’ve already mastered the essential craft of the European politician, namely the ability to say one thing in this chamber and a very different thing to your home electorate. You’ve spoken here about free trade, and amen to that. Who would have guessed, listening to you just now, that you were the author of the phrase ‘British jobs for British workers’ and that you have subsidised, where you have not nationalised outright, swathes of our economy, including the car industry and many of the banks? Perhaps you would have more moral authority in this house if your actions matched your words? Perhaps you would have more legitimacy in the councils of the world if the United Kingdom were not going into this recession in the worst condition of any G20 country?

The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money. The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around £20,000. Servicing the interest on that debt is going to cost more than educating the child. Now, once again today you try to spread the blame around; you spoke about an international recession, international crisis. Well, it is true that we are all sailing together into the squalls. But not every vessel in the convoy is in the same dilapidated condition. Other ships used the good years to caulk their hulls and clear their rigging; in other words – to pay off debt. But you used the good years to raise borrowing yet further. As a consequence, under your captaincy, our hull is pressed deep into the water line under the accumulated weight of your debt We are now running a deficit that touches 10% of GDP, an almost unbelievable figure. More than Pakistan, more than Hungary; countries where the IMF have already been called in. Now, it’s not that you’re not apologising; like everyone else I have long accepted that you’re pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It’s that you’re carrying on, wilfully worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left. Last year - in the last twelve months – a hundred thousand private sector jobs have been lost and yet you created thirty thousand public sector jobs.

Prime Minister, you cannot carry on for ever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit. You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt. And when you repeat, in that wooden and perfunctory way, that our situation is better than others, that we’re ‘well-placed to weather the storm’, I have to tell you that you sound like a Brezhnev-era apparatchik giving the party line. You know, and we know, and you know that we know that it’s nonsense! Everyone knows that Britain is worse off than any other country as we go into these hard times. The IMF has said so; the European Commission has said so; the markets have said so – which is why our currency has devalued by thirty percent. And soon the voters too will get their chance to say so. They can see what the markets have already seen: that you are the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government."

6 comments:

Sra. Madera said...

The president of the European Union slammed President Barack Obama's plans to have the U.S. spend its way out of recession as "a road to hell," underscoring European differences with Washington ahead of a crucial summit next week on fixing the world economy.
Check it out.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11993185

Gino said...

this so british.
they dont hold anything back in their in political discourse, and do it with eloquence lacking in our own political class.

FAICA Soldier said...

Sometimes I wonder if they get out of their circles enough to see what is really going on or if they even care. My mom and my aunt aren't getting along now because my aunt refuses to take a job at less than she was making before she was laid off because the difference in pay is "too marginal" when comparing her unemployment (which just got increased and extended) which she gets for working 0 hours with working 40 hours for 40% more. I also have former coworker who is unemployed and applied to some of the mortgage assistance programs that the government has been pushing the banks to do. They all told him that they can't help anyone unless they are already a few payments behind.

I don't get it. People are trying to do what they can to get by and the message from the white house is that you are better off not trying.

RobertDWood said...

Thanks Madera. I caught that as well. Its unfortunate that he is currently a lame duck prime minister in the Czeck Republic, or his comments may carry more weight.

Gino, absolutely. Maybe thats the difference between the English and American language.

FAICA, its that wonderfully vicious cycle of a self perpetuating welfare state once again.
But not taking a job... thats just lazy. Bah.

Solameanie said...

I can't wait to see the next Prime Minister's Questions on C-Span Sunday night, LOL.

Jacob Mc. said...

I can never get enough of that clip. I first heard about it on the radio and immediately looked it up on YouTube and just kept playing it over and over. It's so applicable to our own government. Hannah's words have renewed my interest in politics and given me a hope for future governments.