“When a business goes bankrupt, the perpetrators are forced to go through the humiliation of bankruptcy and face years of purdah. Why don’t we insist on something similar for our politicians?”
BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Evan Davis. interviewed Labour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, the architect of our economic doom while assisting Gordon Brown.
Balls was asked his opinion about the latest plan by the Tories to force the banks to throw money at people. In a sane world, or maybe a world where the BBC was an unbiased seeker after the truth, the questions would have been peppered with remarks from Davis like “Why should we believe you, when you and Brown built up so much debt during the boom years that there was nothing left when the slump came”. Or “Don’t you think the British people deserve an apology from you because of what you have done to them”. But no. Balls was treated as though he was acknowledged expert on economics, when in fact he presided over a disaster which a first year economics student would have known enough to avoid. You make provision in the good years for the bad ones. But of course, if you believe that you have achieved the end of boom and bust, sensible rules don’t apply. What a fool.
When a business goes bankrupt, the perpetrators are forced to go through the humiliation of bankruptcy and face years of purdah before they are allowed to run companies again. Why don’t we insist on something similar for our politicians? Balls should be forced to recant, and spend, say, five years out of parliament during which time he should examine his own record. When he showed he had learned by his mistakes (possibly by renouncing socialism as a childish, counterproductive pursuit) he might be allowed a platform again. Of course, if the real British people were to be heard, Gordon Brown would forfeit all his pensions and be forced to live on St Helena for the rest of his days.
Meanwhile, the Tory plan to give free money to everyone is doomed. Don’t these people realise that because there is no confidence in the economy, nobody is going to invest, even with zero interest rates. The business world wants lower taxes on income, capital gains, inheritance, and dividend payments. It wants less regulation. It wants to see that investment will be rewarded by juicy profits.
It is amazing how our political leaders get away with murder. Remember the great economist George Osborne wanted to share the proceeds of growth of Brown’s Stalinist state. And don’t forget that governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King was one of those 364 economists back in 1981 who signed a letter saying Margaret Thatcher had got it all wrong.
How do they get away with it?
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