On one level, it reads like right wing think tank propaganda, given that the conservative party didn't oppose many of the things labour did. Indeed, one reason labour won power was that it adopted conservative economic policy. Old socialist policy was never going to work. But, all of the things that set up the false economy was conservative doctrine. That is why "new" labour had business support and won. So, yes labour got it wrong, but the conservatives would have too. Conservatives love a property, borrowing and spending boom. Its how Thatcher made her name in the 80's. A British disease.
However, fascinating for me was the bit right at the end:
Where the general public is concerned,
one of the most distressing features
of Britain’s evolution over the last
two decades has to have been the
relentless spread of surveillance and
coercion. Britain is plastered with
warning notices, CCTV and speed
cameras, and other aspects of the
surveillance state. Government needs
to start stripping away much of this
panoply of surveillance and coercion,
and to enshrine in law the primacy
of individual liberties.
So presumably, part of their conclusion is that all this is actually damaging the economy. And, that conclusion was pre Snowden...
yep, definitely neoliberal think tank propaganda of the TINA (There Is No Alternative) variety. What the game is now is to scare the older folks into thinking that unless they vote for neoliberal sell-out politicians, there will be no funding of their old age pensions, etc. So once the think tanks (funded by Capital) have manufactured sufficient consent through scare-TINA propaganda, they get the politicians to allow massive waves of cheap labor immigration and lessening worker protections and benefits.
Same old game they have been playing for decades now.
So after skimming this, it looks like they spend pretty much the whole 34 pages saying "the economy is bad and it isn't getting better." Fine, but I'm not sure that implies disaster. Aren't the typical solutions for massive debt either a) default or b) inflation? Since Britain has its own currency, it can just inflate away its debt if worst comes to worst. I didn't see any place where they even considered this possibility.
On an unrelated note, I'm pretty impressed with how well Firefox's new PDF engine renders this large PDF. It's a bit slow, but not bad.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 41.7 ms ] thread"An early objective for government should be to put an end to the state of national denial over the true condition of the economy"
However, fascinating for me was the bit right at the end:
Where the general public is concerned, one of the most distressing features of Britain’s evolution over the last two decades has to have been the relentless spread of surveillance and coercion. Britain is plastered with warning notices, CCTV and speed cameras, and other aspects of the surveillance state. Government needs to start stripping away much of this panoply of surveillance and coercion, and to enshrine in law the primacy of individual liberties.
So presumably, part of their conclusion is that all this is actually damaging the economy. And, that conclusion was pre Snowden...
Same old game they have been playing for decades now.
On an unrelated note, I'm pretty impressed with how well Firefox's new PDF engine renders this large PDF. It's a bit slow, but not bad.