The BBC Economics
editor, Stephanie Flanders, has concluded that Ed
Balls' speech on the economy at Thomson Reuters marks a new phase in the debate
about British economic policy. The "growth versus austerity" dispute over is now
over. http://www.reform.co.uk/content/29514/research/health/flatlining_lack_of_progress_on_nhs_reform
As far as the three
parliamentary parties are concerned there is no alternative: Austerity has
won.
This
was reflected in a major item about the deficit on Newsnight last night. There
was nothing about growth or raising revenue through collecting unpaid taxes, it
was all about cuts, both current and future.
Using
computer graphics, Flanders showed the divide between spending on government
departments that is being cut and areas that have been ‘ring fenced’ i.e. the
NHS and pensions. She made the point that choosing to protect some areas means
that a greater burden falls on the remainder. Cue an ‘expert’ explaining how
harmful and illogical it is to ring fence NHS spending.
Even
with ‘ring fencing’ budgets are tight and this causes bitter battles within the
NHS for the use of scarce resources. We need more spending on the NHS not a
freeze. The speech by Balls (together with that of Ed Miliband) has taken
increased spending off the political agenda: it’s all about cuts now.
Flanders’ Newsnight
speech shows that this is what we can expect from now on.
What
has this to do with the Save Lewisham Hospital
Campaign?
Saving
Lewisham Hospital will cost. There are plenty of managers who will be prepared
to argue that money spent on keeping Lewisham Hospital would be better spent
somewhere else. Professional politicians from all the main parties and the
media, will back them up. The “there’s just not enough money” propaganda
bombardment will convince some ordinary people and weaken our
campaign.
If
the Government manage to close the Hospital then persuading a future government
to re-open it will be very, very difficult.
The
Role of the Labour Party
The Labour Party have been extraordinary feeble in their opposition to
the Conservative/Liberal Democratic Government. Of course, it is difficult for
them to do so because fundamentally they have similar
policies.
As
Stephanie
Flanders pointed out
herself the great "growth
versus austerity" battle between Ed Balls and George Osborne was a pseudo debate
because Balls never really offered
an alternative policy.
“Former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling was going to slash capital
investment too from 2010 onwards. Ed Balls distanced himself from Darling's plan
and came up with his "five point plan." But in the scale of things, that was not
so very different from what we already had.
“A determined Keynesian effort to double public investment, cut taxes and
go all out for growth - along the lines suggested by the likes of Paul Krugman -
was simply never on the table.
“Maybe America shows us that there was a better alternative out there.
Maybe it doesn't. The problem for Ed Balls is that people never really believed
he was offering one.” http://www.reform.co.uk/content/29514/research/health/flatlining_lack_of_progress_on_nhs_reform
The
Labour Party bowed the knee to the Baal of Neoliberalism a long time ago.
Between 1997 and 2010 Labour ministers deregulated, privatised and signed PFI
deals with reckless abandon.
Only
last month Lord Warner was on the wireless calling for end to the ‘ring fencing’
of the NHS budget.
“A
Labour former Health minister has warned that the NHS “is living on borrowed
time” and called for an end to its protected budget.“Norman Warner said the health service’s business model “is bust” and it should no longer be exempt from the austerity measures that have hit most government departments.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/labour-peer-norman-warner-nhs-on-borrowed-time-8633058.html
People
Before Profit
Not
long ago, a local Liberal Democrat acknowledged that, despite not having any
councillors, ‘People Before Profit’ were the real opposition party in
Lewisham.
It
seems as though, despite not having any MPs, we might well have to fulfil that
role at a national level as
well.
Agree with us? Join , set up , launch your own local group. www.peoplebeforeprofit.org.uk
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