Blaming crisis on Labour is unhelpful
HOW many Tory ministers does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: two. One to change it and one to say the change was inevitable due to the overspending of the last Labour Government.
Not a funny joke perhaps but a true one.
Now fox hunting's been banned, blaming Labour for the budget deficit has become the popular Tory sport of the day. Sadly, there's a problem with this claim, it's not true.
Does anyone after all believe, that had Michael Howard's Tories somehow won in 2005 the deficit would not be as bad if not worse than it is now?
This isn't to bash the Tories, merely to point out that the economic crisis was a global one which affected every country in the western world. To constantly harp on as if it's a British Labour Party issue is both unfair and unhelpful.
Chris Hallam
Exeter
2 Comments
by Sarah, Surrey
Monday, November 01 2010, 1:36PM
“I'm not a Tory and I blame the Labour Party for the economy (and for the ban on foxhunting). In all the years they were in power they tried to take control of everything and got their fingers into every part of business and social life using our money. If someone had so much as a nice birthday party they rushed to take credit. I blame them for stripping small businesses of their reserves and their ability to act so that when the financial crisis came (caused in no small part by the unforeseen consequences of ill thought out "regulation"), they had nothing to fall back on and put hundreds of thousands out of work. The coalition isn't ideal by any stretch of imagination, but we've had too much of idealistic politicians stomping all over us and a bit of make-do-and-mend and muddling-through is a blessed relief. Well done the Lib Dems for resisting Labour.”
by Adrian, Exeter
Monday, November 01 2010, 12:42PM
“It may be unhelpful but so was Labours refusal to accept that there was a problem while they were in power.
There may be a global recession but Labour did nothing to protect us from the worse effects.”