What if Labour HAD won the 2010 general election and were re-elected to follow their ‘more’ of the same’ policies of the Big State, less cuts, more spending, and more tax rises on an anti austerity platform?
If you listen to Labour, in 2010 spending nearly £160 billion more than the UK earned did NOT falsely inflate our GDP figure, even though Government Spending and Consumption are major components of GDP and there was sod all else ‘growing’ at the time, accept unemployment.
This question is quite relevant as a Labour government is likely to form the next government in 2015 and could follow a similar economic model, so thankfully WE DO KNOW, as socialist France was following a similar strategy to Labour’s - and despite France having a much better BALANCED economy and a much smaller annual budget deficit than the UK’s – France has had to reverse those polices and follow a similar strategy as Osbourne’s Plan A..
But even after veering away from the anti austerity plan a year or so ago, France had 0.3% GDP in 2013 and expect 1.0% in 2014, whereas the UK had 1.3% GDP growth in 2013 and expect over 2.7% growth in 2014 - and now has RECORD unemployment at 11% (3.3 million claiming) having gone UP substantially in 2013 as the UK’s was slowly trending down and is now at 6.9% and a 5-year low.
The following article sums up the unsustainable similarity in socialist economic theories of Miliband and France’s Hollande and explains how France now has light at the end of their economic tunnel – but is seen to betray a socialist model, even though it was following the road to Greece.
“How Francois Hollande changed but Ed Miliband stayed the same.”
www.trendingcentral.com/francois-hollande-changed-ed-miliband-stayed/
“Back in the summer of 2012, Ed Miliband was exalting his new hero across the channel, French president François Hollande. The Labour leader could not have been more generous in his praise for his opposite number in the French Socialist Party:”
Miliband: “What President Hollande is seeking to do in France and what he is seeking to do in leading the debate in Europe is find that different way forward. We are in agreement in seeking that new way that needs to be found and I think can be found.”
“The man Miliband pledged an ideological allegiance to was the François Hollande of old. Two years ago the new French president was naively idealistic; stubborn in his belief that big government, high spending, more borrowing and punitive taxes on the rich was the path to economic recovery. He was a nice man, but meek, bookish, a nerd. It is not difficult to see why Miliband liked the idea of emulating the politician who was, essentially, a baguette-brandishing Ed.”
“In the two years that followed Hollande changed, but Miliband didn’t. France was brought almost to its knees as unemployment hit a 16-year high and Hollande’s approval rating reached a record low for a French president. As the rest of western Europe slowly began to recover, it was the one country that had chosen a socialist route that stagnated. Ferraris queued up at the French-Swiss border as wealth creators tried to flee their nation’s new debilitating tax rates.”
“And so, at the beginning of this year, Hollande changed. Out with the old failing mantra of the state, in with significant cuts to public spending. Out with the old tax the successful regardless of what it does to the economy dogma, in with generous tax cuts to businesses. No longer does Hollande want to be called a ‘socialist’; he is now a pragmatic ‘social democrat’. His critics on the left call it a ‘lurch to the right’.”
“Presented with first-hand evidence of how such policies have ruined a neighbouring country’s economy, Miliband is telling voters that he will do exactly the same thing if they give him a chance. The very same policies undertaken by the old Hollande, which the new Hollande now rejects, are being embraced with vigour by Labour’s leader back home.”
“Unlike Hollande, Miliband is not going to waver from his dogmatic ideals no matter the consequences for his country. Unlike Hollande, Miliband will never be pictured in a motorcycle helmet on the front page of a tabloid with a bodyguard delivering him and his mistress a bacon sarnie. If he (Miliband) wins in 2015, we only have to look across the channel to see what will happen. Don’t say you weren’t warned.”
In conclusion this is proof a Labour 5-year UK anti austerity programme would have been an economic and social disaster, resulting in much higher interest rates to satisfy the UK's institutional deficit/debt funders and a significantly higher National Debt to pass on to our grandchildren than the likely £1,500,000,000,000 (£1.5 trillion) in 2015.