FTSE 100 Chart Showing Performance by Premier
This chart is currently doing the rounds in the City. Sadly, I don’t know the original creator, so we can’t credit them here, but if anyone knows, do post on it and we will amend that.
It makes a pretty convincing argument for the Conservatives ability to manage markets and the economy.
With Labour, the whole thing has just stalled. Twice.
Ken Clarke and Cameron
TRG President, Ken Clarke, is said to be delighted at his return to the Shadow Cabinet, announced this morning, and I am sure that all TRG members and supporters will feel the same way. He is the new Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Economic and Regulatory Reform.
Ken commented that is was “time to stop enjoying myself on the back benches” and get back to frontline politics. Hooray to that!
It has been interesting to see Labour’s reaction. Brown took questions at his morning press conference, saying that he thought it was great to see someone in the shadow cabinet that agreed with Labour. This might have been a hurtful attack, had it been true, but the example he quoted was Ken’s apparent agreement on the government’s recent changes to VAT. That was a lie and Brown must know that (or he really is out of touch on economic policy!).
Ken was quick to point out that the reduction in VAT would not really help businesses because of the cost of introducting the new rate and the lack of difference it would make to the public’s buying decisions. He even suggested moving it from being collected monthly to quarterly, helping small company cash-flows, as an alternative policy to Labour’s!
Still, if they are lying within the first hour of his appointment, they must be really worried. That can only be good from a Conservative point of view.
Welcome back, Ken!
Yesterday saw the big annual jamboree for the Fabian Society, one of the oldest and largest think-tank organisations in the country. It has had an interesting history on the left of British politics, sometimes being at the heart of new policy generation and sometimes being a home for dissidents.
These days, it is less interesting than either of those trends. Reports of their event suggest it was well attended, with many leading Labour ministers taking part on the platform. The problem was that with that input came an insistence on New Labour-like control. Discussions that looked like they might have been taken off message by members of the audience, were quickly curtailed. James Purnell (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) talked about redistribution, but ignored a direct question on whether that would mean tax rises; which were clearly a good thing in the eyes of the questioner. More incredibly, Purnell walked away from a lady who came up to him afterwards to ask an awkward question about Heathrow. He listened to her for about thirty seconds before just walking off saying she was not interested in listening to him. No, she wasn’t. But he should have been interested in listening to her. It was an extraordinarily high-handed way to behave.
Purnell had said some other interesting things, it seems. He admitted that “the right” do care about other people (which was me by gasps from the audience) but, rightly, pointed out that the difference is often the role of the state in resolving issues. He also observed that thirty-years ago, the “Winter of Discontent” had shaped the politics of a generation, leading them to accept Thatcher’s reforms and he seemed to hope that current crisis would swing the pendulum Labour’s way again. Not quite as insensitive as Baroness Vadera’s comments last week… but close.
This theme was echoed by Rushanara Ali, Labout PPC for Bethnal Green. She argued that Labour (“we…”) need to make the most of the current “opportunity”. She acknowledge the need for markets (very open minded of her) but thought that it would be appropriate to highlight the failings of “the Thatcherite-Reagen consensus”, which she argued has been “destroyed”. Funnily enough, there was no mention of Brown’s economic excess or the ten years Labour has had to make amends if he had wished.
In their fantasies, the Fabians had wished the last ten years away. We could have agreed with that dream.
At least there was one Labour minister that did not seem to be living in a dream land. Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development, made one financial observation that had nothing to do with the current economic crisis. When talking about party-funding, he dryly observed, that,
“If there is a party that is obsessed with money, it is not the Conservative Party.” Absolutely, Douglas. He still drifted back to the idea, though, that the current economic woes are of Tory-doing rather than Labour’s, though, with his comment that, “the right is intellectually bankrupt in the face of what has happened in the last eight months… it is up to the left…”.
Such fantasies are truly of staggering scale.
When it is in Sheffield, it seems.
Banging on about the excesses of political correctness and odd bits of behaviour usually do not interest me much, but there is one this weekend that has astounded and infuriated me.
It seems that a school in Sheffield has taken the decision to abandon references to the word “school” because of negative connotations! It will be referred to as a “place of learning”, instead.
There is no clever or insightful comment to be made on this that I can see. It is quite simply daft.
A school is something to be celebrated; it is a place where each generation has the chance to learn and make the best of the opportunities that they may face in life. It is a crucial role. We should be celebrating the presence of any “school” in a community and not hiding it.
Perhaps the headmistress was simply hoping to avoid school league tables.
The TRG would like to wish all of its members and supporters a Happy New Year and best wishes for 2009!
The big political questions in the early part of the year are bound to centre on the continuing economic slowdown and the possibility of an early general election as Brown lurches through a series of crisis measures and hopes to see his poll ratings bounce.
So, for our first poll of the year, we have decided to ask you whether you believe an election will be called in the early part of the year! Vote now using the panel on the right!
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