Job losses - Brighton needs Keynes not Cameron-Clegg
You may have heard of the planned 150 job losses at Lloyds Group in the city - unions say far more.
It shows how vulnerable our local economy is to the on-going economic crisis.
We also face the bleak prospect of job losses in front line local public services such as education and social services.
A result of the utterly misguided Cameron-Clegg budget, with its savage and unnecessary public spending cuts.
Cuts on this scale could plunge us back into recession
Workers, private or publicly employed, taxpayers, businesses as well as those most vulnerable, who depend on public services, are all paying the price for this financial mismanagement.
Conservative Brighton and Hove City Council Leader Mary Mears has gone as far as saying public sector cuts on this scale were necessary.
I don't believe these cuts are necessary and neither do respected economists.
Longer dole queues and banking and public service lay-offs are not the way forward.
In parliament, I shall continue to make the case that, as the English economist JM Keynes demonstrated so successfuly in the last century, government investment is the way to get people back to work and to cut the deficit.
I'll be seeking meetings with local unions from the banking and public service sectors to support them in putting the case to employers that this city really is worth a long term investment and hopefully save some jobs.
Council poll today - back Lizzie Deane
Today, Thursday, is a city council election in the St Peters & North Laine ward in central Brighton.
The ward also includes some of the Seven Dials area, West Hill, Roundhill, Viaduct-Rise and the New England Quarter.
If you're a resident, please come out and support Lizzie.
She's an exceptional and hard working candidate.
An experienced community activist who understands the challenges of city-living.
Best of luck, Lizzie!
Get more information on Lizzie's campaign here.
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Comments:
Caroline Lucas
30 August 2010
16:40
Thanks for your response.
Don't think we're going to agree on our interpretation of Keynes.
And I don't think comparing public sector debt to an individual household’s debt is useful.
It's precisely when household spending has to be cut back that we need government investment all the more, if we're to avoid the very real dangers of a double-dip recession.
Expert economists are already sounding warnings: an interesting article in the respected Royal Economic Society Newsletter reviews the London School of Economics' blog on UK budgetary policy under the heading "Support for deficit fetishism on the wane?".
Both the article, and the blogs it reviews, underline the danger of making huge cuts now.
They refer to the economic crisis of the early 1930s and to the Labour Government's decision, in May 1931, to set up a committee to make recommendations to stabilise the deteriorating financial situation.
The recommendations were to introduce tax and cuts in spending in the proportion of one to four, uncannily close to the "Osborne ratio".
Keynes is apparently reported to have described the Report as "the most foolish document I ever had the misfortune to read".
And as Joseph Stiglitz says in a recent Independent piece http://bit.ly/cWAKnW
"Cutbacks in Germany, Britain and France will mean all of Europe will suffer.
“And if everyone follows this policy, their budget deficits will get worse, so they will have to make more cuts and raise taxes more.
“It's a vicious downward spiral."
The idea that "the Big Society" can step in and provide the vital public services currently provided by the State is a fantasy, especially at a time when so many of the civil society organisations that make up that Big Society are themselves having their own funding slashed.
I recently hosted a meeting for a few of these organisations with the Civil Society Minister, and they made exactly that point - common sense, I think.
Caroline
Roger Thornhill
26 August 2010
07:50
Two things.
1. Keynes did not successfully demonstrate. The recession dragged on instead of rebounding as the previous recessions had.
2. Keynes would NOT advocate spending now, for his theory maintains one builds SURPLUSES in times of plenty and spend that back into the economy in times of hardship. You know, like sensible people do.
Just like sensible people who are faced with lower incomes and an uncertain future, one cuts back on expenditure, even on things previously thought of as "essential". The last thing a sensible person does is borrow more. Worse still, go to their employer and demand more money (in the State's case, increase taxes) because that can cause the income to go away.
We need to protect our borders, maintain Rule of Law, care for the mentally ill and infirm (inc elderly). Once that is done, really, everything else is on the table. The vast majority can be done by pluralistic, organic, grass roots. "The Big Society" is just a changing of the guard - replacing Dave Spart with Hyacinth Bucket. We will still have monopolies and you should know how THEY operate.
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