How safe will our economy be in the candidate’s hands?

How safe will it be? It won't be safe at all.

After Thatcher came Major. The country went into recession and inflation was at 10%. Unemployment was at 3 million.

We then had the fiasco of “black Wednesday” and the withdrawal from the ERM.

Major was a one nation Tory, but his handling of the economy was bungling and amateur.

The economy will not be safe in any party's hands that I can see.

M0nica

The economy will not be safe in any party's hands that I can see.

You cannot at the moment say that with confidence because none of the opposition have provided an economic plan.

Starmer has employed a number of experts who are working within stated parameters to produce an economic policy for the U.K. once this is published then you can say with confidence whether you think it will provide growth etc.

It won't be safe with either of them. The coming winter will really force people to cut back on their spending, once the October fuel bills arrive. The hospitality industry in particular, will be forced to shed thousands of jobs, as pubs and restaurants are closed down. Small businesses are at huge risk too, with rising costs of resources, packaging etc leaving them with no choice but to raise prices. Already I have seen several local traders closing their doors (cafe, artisan bakery, hairdresser, beauty salon, boutique, jeweller, gift shop) I'm no economist, but I know what I am seeing, and it looks like the start of a huge recession just around the corner.

I still do not think any of the parties has the competence to run the economy, especially as we deal with all the downsides of Brexit.

After Major came Cameron, who completely failed to deal with the aftermath of the world banking collapse in a way that protected our institutions and poor.

He introduced a decade of austerity, cutting all services to the bone, whilst cutting taxes which only benefited the wealthy. The working classes, particularly in the North felt the effects throughout this time and the end result was that when a weakened PM caved in to a referendum they voted to withdraw from the EU in the hope that by cutting immigration etc things would get better.

He ended his inglorious term by walking away from the chaos.

I watched Starmer's speech on Labour's Mission for Economic Growth. What a difference from the oh-so-inadequate Tories.

The biggest issue with Brexit is that it needed all the other countries in the world to change how they all worked for us to succeed. The same is true of Liz Truss's economics. The world didn't change when we chose to leave the EU. I can't think why anyone voting for Truss would believe it would this time. Sunak, as he keeps telling us, believed in the Brexit lie.

(I seem to have to click the time-line back to the beginning to watch the video)

Given the stupidity of the past and present front bench and the lies some of them told the LP has a very good chance of doing better.

Johnson - we can increase our exports to the EU is we came out of the morass of the legal legislation

Rees-Mogg - there will be no checks in Dover

Grayling - there will be no checks in Dover

Dorries - Liz Truss is going around the country wearing earrings costing £4.50 from Claire's Acessories

We then had the chaos of Mays tenure and of course Johnson, who has ended his tenure with the U.K. debt standing at £1.8trn., and growing at £45 per second.

Undoubtedly covid contributed to the problem, but the U.K. has received a double whammy with the Brexit effect which has resulted in a doubling of government borrowing on top of the expense of covid.

That is without all the money spent and wasted - there is a huge list which I am sure everyone can draw up.

The U.K. economy is not and never has been safe in Tories hands - it is a myth, just like so much else that they tell the country.

The shouts of "they are all the same" we are hearing from M0nica and Dempie55 make me worry about them as they are obviously not and only one party is in power.

That view comes over as on the way to paranoia if you truly believe that everyone threatens your well-being in the same way. Are you saying you believe that of a government that has made us poorer and less equal over the last 12 years, and wrecked the economy is the same as one that is putting forward reasoned ideas that, I would guess, the majority, who are not on any extreme, could accept as a way forward. Or is this just a throw away remark because of your political bias?

We then had the chaos of Mays tenure and of course Johnson, who has ended his tenure with the U.K. debt standing at £1.8trn., and growing at £45 per second.

I really don't think the 'debt' itself is anything to worry about. After all, a very large proportion of it is 'created' money and is not owed to anyone. The rest is people's savings and investments. People have bought government bonds for a few hundred years as a means of securing a regular and reliable income.

What is more of a worry is how the 'debt' has been distributed by the tories for that last 12 years, because precious little of it has landed up in the pockets of a greater part of the population. If it had done so, the greater part of it would have returned to the government by way of taxation and we wouldn't have such a large deficit.

Norway is a fabulous example of resourceful use of public funds for the betterment of society.

MaizieD

^We then had the chaos of Mays tenure and of course Johnson, who has ended his tenure with the U.K. debt standing at £1.8trn., and growing at £45 per second.^

I really don't think the 'debt' itself is anything to worry about. After all, a very large proportion of it is 'created' money and is not owed to anyone. The rest is people's savings and investments. People have bought government bonds for a few hundred years as a means of securing a regular and reliable income.

What is more of a worry is how the 'debt' has been distributed by the tories for that last 12 years, because precious little of it has landed up in the pockets of a greater part of the population. If it had done so, the greater part of it would have returned to the government by way of taxation and we wouldn't have such a large deficit.

I may agree in part, but Tory policies are apparently partly built around this “fact”.

To compare with a Labour term in office.

Blair made a promise that he would keep to the same tax plan as the Tories, I.e. he would not raise tax during his term in office, and indeed that is exactly what he did throughout his first term.

He did raise NI in order to begin to rebuild the NHS after years of neglect by the Tories.

The U.K. went on to experience 15 years of growth with low inflation.

Tax was raised in further terms and ploughed into education, the NHS, Sure Start, social services etc.

The British population got used to economic stability and growth.

This was brought to a halt with the world banking crises.

However Brown later introduced fiscal stimulus which had begun to show real results.

Then Cameron won the election and the economy was hit with an almighty austerity hammer, and the NHS, education, social services, child poverty had gone completely into reverse.

It's a great pity that some voters believed the lies put out about Brown and the banking crisis and chose to vote Tory, thus leading to 12 years of austerity. I wonder how many people remember what life was like under a Blair govt. Excluding of course with the Iraq war which the Tories supported.

Dinahmo

It's a great pity that some voters believed the lies put out about Brown and the banking crisis and chose to vote Tory, thus leading to 12 years of austerity. I wonder how many people remember what life was like under a Blair govt. Excluding of course with the Iraq war which the Tories supported.

Yes the Iraq war was a huge stain. But it doesn’t in any way detract from the economic success.

DaisyAnne When Dempsie said 'It won't be safe with either of them' I think she was answering the question about candidates, not parties and meant neither Truss or Sunak.

Following on from Dempsie's point about upcoming recession I believe she is right. Today I visited our county town in the South West of England. Parking was free to encourage people to town during the school holidays but the car park was mostly empty. Many shop units were empty - some have been empty for months. Many shops and cafes and that still look as though they're in business were closed. The streets seemed empty of people. I went into one nice but ordinary cafe to have lunch. It was pretty much empty. £12 for a salad bowl. It was £8 last summer. I went to M&S to buy one for £4 and ate it in the park. All this on a bright summer afternoon in the school holiday in an area usually full of tourists.

Businesses will close in droves once the energy bills go up and the cost of living crisis really bites. Sunak has been part of the making of this situation and seems bereft of ideas and Truss is utterly uninspiring. Time for a GE.

I understand that Keir Starmer has promised that Labour would make delivering "strong, secure and fair" growth its main priority if it won power.

And I despair, in a world where we face a climate crisis, when we are consuming far more than our share of the world's resources, what we need is prosperity without growth. A more equal sharing of resources and ways of ensuring a better use of existing resources, but emphatically not growth, sucking in more resources from other countries, consuming more energy and encouraging us to measure our success in life by how much we possess.

I don’t understand economics at all so forgive me if I’ve got this all wrong and I’m doing it from memory. Gordon Brown said that government borrowing shouldn’t be more than 48 (?)
of GDP but it currently runs at 100% of GDP. I can’t remember where I heard it and I’ve probably got it all wrong so apologies in advance.

The "national debt" was over 100% of GDP for most of the 20th century until the 1960s. The country won't implode!

It's possible to have growth without producing more tangible goods. A significant percentage of the UK's GDP is made up of services. I agree with you that the country needs a more equitable distribution of wealth/resources.

The problem is that if there's a recession (and it's looking increasingly likely that there will be), there's less money circulating, together with inflation, and, as RichmondPark highlighted, small businesses will close.

I’m listening to the BBC now, good grief.