Britannia Radio

Cameron made an important speech on an hour or so ago and it calls 
for serious thought.  I give here one paper’s report together with 
some quotes from the actual speech itself.

One thing the Labour spokespeople didn’t do was give the speech 
serious thought!  Yvette Cooper had a bitter rant and here I give 
that of Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury.  An good 
example of a  totally petulant and ill-thought ou response.  He’s 
obviously very rattled!

The speech is a good start - but there's more, much more, to be done.
e The Guardian
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
nb I have a copy of the full speech and if anyone would like it I can 
send it as an attachment
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TELEGRAPH   17.10.08
Financial crisis: David Cameron blames Gordon Brown for Britain's 
'broken economy'
David Cameron has broken an uneasy truce over the financial crisis 
blaming Gordon Brown for breaking Britain's economy with policies 
that now "lie in ruins".

    By Jon Swaine

In a blistering criticism of the Prime Minister the Conservative 
leader accused Mr Brown of "complete and utter failure" in his 
management of the economy.

While defending his decision to approve Mr Brown's rescue package for 
Britain's banking sector, Mr Cameron added that he wanted to make 
"crystal clear" that this was as far as his party's support would go.

"This crisis has highlighted just how mistaken Labour's economic 
policy has been," Mr Cameron said in a speech in the City of London.

Accusing the Prime Minister of spending and borrowing "without 
restraint", Mr Cameron said: "The economic assumptions that Gordon 
Brown made in the last decade now lie in ruins."

He accused the Prime Minister of making disastrous decisions in two 
key areas: first, encouraging a debt-fuelled bubble in the private 
sector, the bursting of which had caused the downturn and second, a 
failure to control public spending which had left Britain unable to 
deal with the downturn when it struck.

Twinning his attack with his views on Britain's "broken society", Mr 
Cameron said: "What's happened over the last ten years is that Labour 
has broken our economy – and we must fix it."

Mr Cameron said that while "Gordon Brown is trying to rescue the 
banks, we now need a plan to rescue the economy", adding that Labour 
had no idea how to do this.

Earlier George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, described Britain's 
economy as a "burnt wreckage" and said Mr Brown was responsible.
"Of course, when the house is on fire, as it was a few days ago when 
the banking system was near collapse, then we supported the 
Government," Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4.
"But then you are entitled to ask who built the house, who allowed it 
to catch fire and how are we going to rebuild the house so it never 
catches fire again."

However, Mr Cameron made clear that the City must also take its share 
of the blame, saying Britain had suffered from a decade of 
"irresponsible capitalism presided over by irresponsible government".

Calling for "responsible free enterprise, regulated and supported by 
responsible government", Mr Cameron promised that the Conservatives 
would clamp down on reckless behaviour by bankers.

He said tougher regulation of the financial services industry was 
needed, and promised to introduce an extra levy on the City in order 
to pay for higher quality staff for the Financial Services Authority.
"For too long, City firms have been able to poach the best 
regulators," Mr Cameron said.

The Conservative leader promised to rebuild the British economy on 
three pillars: "Fiscal responsibility - the Government must live 
within its means.
"Financial responsibility - you cannot build an economy on debt.
"And a balanced economy - as you cannot rely on unsustainable growth 
in a few areas to increase prosperity for everyone."

He reiterated his commitment to bolster the role of the Bank of 
England and to create an Office of Budget Responsibility to hold a 
Conservative government to account.

However he rejected criticisms that this signalled a cop-out, saying: 
"We will not, as some have wrongly assumed, be subcontracting this 
core function of government.
"They report. Governments decide."

Mr Cameron said Labour had forced Britain to depend too heavily on a 
narrow base of industries, and that a Conservative government would 
reverse this decline in variety in the economy.
"We have to broaden our economic base to include more science, more 
hi-tech services, more green technologies, more engineering and more 
high-value manufacturing, drawing upon a much wider range of 
industries, markets, people, towns and cities," he said.

Mr Cameron concluded that just as he had urged more social 
responsibility in order to fix the "broken society", so the economy 
required the same cure.
"To repair the broken society, in the long-term, we need social 
responsibility. And to repair the broken economy, in the long-term, 
we need economic responsibility," he said.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The newspaper has to select and in the way of newspapers the press 
reports reduce sppeches rto blandness !  So I now give here direct 
quotes from the text of his speech to amplify this report. -cs

But some people think that this decision - to support 
recapitalisation - means that we somehow now subscribe to the 
Government’s entire economic policy and doctrine. Let me make it 
crystal clear – we do not.

And the complete and utter failure of their economic record has never 
been more clear to see.

The economic assumptions that Gordon Brown made in the last decade 
now lie in ruins.

His assumption that a government could preserve stability while 
running a budget deficit in a boom.

His assumption that global financial integration reduced, rather than 
increased, the risks in our domestic economy.

His assumption that you could build a sustainable economy on a narrow 
base of housing, public spending, and financial services.

His assumption that we could permanently spend more than our income 
and build an economy on debt.

His assumption that you could abolish boom and bust and that the good 
times would last forever.

Now we can see that each of his assumptions were false.

Any proper consideration of what the policies of the last decade have 
produced leads us to three simple words.

We need change.

What’s happened over the last ten years is that Labour has broken our 
economy – and we must fix it. - - - - - - - - -
As the head of the Financial Service Authority, Lord Turner, has 
said, they “allowed a boom to go on for too long”.

So why did our Government let this happen?

Was it negligence – or was it intentional?

There is a strong case for saying it was intentional.

New Labour took a new approach to economic and social policy.

Having previously opposed free market economics, they decided to 
accept it without question, seeing it as a ‘black box’ to produce 
ever-growing tax revenue without properly understanding how it worked.
- - - - - - - - - -
The failure to regulate U.S. sub-prime mortgages was an American 
failure.

And the failure to regulate public and private debt in Britain was a 
British failure.

It was a failure Gordon Brown was warned about time and again.

And time and again he ignored those warnings.

Four years ago he was telling the city: “I want us to do even more to 
encourage the risk takers”.

Two years ago, he was dismissing calls for what he called a 
“regulatory crackdown” on the City.

And only last year, he was celebrating what he called a “golden age 
for the City of London”Now he’s describing that very same time an 
“Age of Irresponsibility”.

“A Golden Age” to an “Age of Irresponsibility” – in less than a year. 
That’s what I call a Rock of Stability.

Does Gordon Brown really think he’s going to get away with that?

He cannot hide from his mistakes.

He cannot hide from the truth.

============================
POLITICS HOME 17.10.08

Tories "spectacularly wrong" on financial crisis, says Stephen Timms
11:08 | 17/10/2008

Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Sky News

Mr Timms criticised David Cameron’s attack on Gordon Brown’s economic 
record, stating that the Conservatives had got been “spectacularly 
wrong” during the financial crisis.

“It’s actually a shame that having initially proposed to support the 
government in the action that needs to be taken through these very 
difficult times in the world economy.  [He promised support of Bank 
recapitalisation - that’s all.  He’s doing just that -cs]

“David Cameron has instead chosen to launch a partisan point-scoring 
political attack,” he said.  [Brown is responsible - it’s HIS crisis 
- he needs pulling up short -cs]

He added: “He’s obviously been under pressure from his backbenchers 
because the Tory party got it so spectacularly wrong on Northern 
Rock, [that was Brown-Darling actyally - different people altogether -
cs]  on Bradford and Bingley, on short selling”.

11:25, BBC News

Later Mr Timms called David Cameron's attack on Mr. Brown "a narrow 
political speech.  Clearly ths Conservative Party has badly misjudged 
things in recent months.  That’s led to pressure on his own side.   
Most people would prefer the Conservatives to do what they said they 
would do and that is support the government in doing what needs to be 
done.

"The Conservative Party should be helping him [NO they shouldn’t - 
they are rightly helping the country not the man who has dropped us 
all in it! -cs]  not giving the irresponsible speech he gave this 
morning".