Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

The Budget

When you sweep away the theatre and the rhetoric, not much changed in the budget. The critical point appears to be that the reduction in borrowing from forecasts because of higher revenue has been retained and not given away, so borrowing requirements overall are reduced and that should please the markets. Darling has certainly not lost the election today for Labour, neither has he won it either. Cameron gave a good Parliamentary attack performance, but nobody is any the wiser what the Tories would do if they win. The opinion poll stalemate is unlikely to be changed by what we know of either of the main parties’ intentions, if they have to really get down to business after the election. Indeed we know little or nothing of the specifics.

We do know that nobody offers a true reform of income tax and its relationship to vat, a means of controlling house prices, a reduction in housing costs as a percentage of income, a shift from the financial sector to science and industry as a proprtion of economic activity, an increase in saving and a reduction in personal borrowing, a moving of the green economy to centre stage or the re-casting of the economy to a more socially just model. Nor is there a frank acceptance that at 52% of the whole, the state sector of the economy is far too large.  There are bits and pieces around from all the parties which  do things here and there to help, but these are small beer with no coherent plan.

There is still the danger that we come out of recession with the same economic model that took us in, with just a few refinements at the margin. Such a bodge will have only one outcome. Long term decline.

Political Integrity

We had the expenses scandal. Last weekend a new outrage was uncovered. Sleazy ex-ministers trying to sell their services,  according to one like ‘a cab for hire’. I am not sure that was the right analogy. Now it turns out there are regular junkets all over the world, paid for by foreign governments, in return for lobbying and promotions when back in Westminster. Loads of MPs are mixed up in it. Cries about rules and disclosures fly in all directions.

This is no longer about rules or regulation. It has gone way beyond that, although there will have to be both. It is about the integrity of politics, the honesty of government and the function of parliament. Many voters did not know that ex-ministers earned thousands a day whispering in the ears of colleagues still in office, hoping to favour the interests of whichever corporation that day (the fees are by the day apparently) they have been paid to promote. Neither did they know that their M.Ps, sent by them to Westminster to look after their constituents’ interests, were in fact having a good deal of fun in paradise settings looking after the interests of tourism in India, Cyprus, the Maldives and so on.

These revelations both appall and dismay. How can this be happening in our country? Who has let this utterly preposterous gravy train of self indulgence, corruption, exploitation, self interest and dishonesty take hold of the heart of our democratic structure? Who exactly are these people who con us into voting for them? What are their motives? How can we believe anything they say?

Some answers are needed. We cannot go on like this. Maybe we have focussed too much on sex scandals, which are as old as history and relatively harmless, when we should have been looking where we thought we could place our trust without fear. Well now we know.