sally cinnamon wrote:
Lets be fair here UK GDP grew at 2.4% in the first year following the recession (Q3 2009 till Q3 2010) which was the year in the run up to the Coalition taking office. ....
Yes it did grow based on some last minute spending by Brown and Ballsup (remember they boasted about leaving the cupboard bare?)
Had Brown not been thrown out by the voters and Darling had remained Chancellor then his plan to cut the deficit was similar to the Osborne one and so would have had the same result on growth given the same outside influences.
But it was almost certain Ballsup would have become Chancellor then he would have pursued his borrow policy and spend with the obvious result of an increased deficit, a fiscal crisis and a second major run on sterling in 2010.
sally cinnamon wrote:
It does amuse me how you get Tories now desperate to talk up these figures accusing Labour and left wing commentators of being unhappy that the economy has returned to growth and talking down the economy etc....can you remember the rhetoric we had from the Tories in the run up to the election when the economy was growing at what is more or less a normal long term trend rate. ....
It amuses me how all the lefties are in denial over the recovery and in denial over the mess they left behind them.
sally cinnamon wrote:
The only reason this slow return to growth looks good is because the economy stagnated for the first 2.5 years under the Coalition so it is a recovery compared to that but not compared to the last year under Labour. ....
The reason Gordon Brown's line in the election campaign was "don't let the Tories threaten the recovery" was exactly because the UK economy was recovering. It went in to stagnation after the Coalition took over they just made sure they blamed Labour for it....
You conveniently are ignoring the three major outside factors that hit growth since 2010.
1. While Britain continued the grow modestly after 2010 the eurozone - which did have a serious fiscal crisis - sank back into recession. The eurozones woes, rather than Osborne's austerity, were one reason why Britain's recovery failed to take off. Its problems hit exports, oushed up bank funding costs and sapped the confidence of business in investing.
The growth figures were also dragged down by peculiarly British factors:
2. A plunge in North sea oil output
3. A sharp drop in financial services - a bigger pain for Britain than elsewhere.
Done his disappearing act again though hasn't he. Same as Lord Elpers after the Mitchell thing went south for him.
