Purnell : We Can’t End Boom and Bust

Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, said…
“I would say that because of the decisions we took during the good times, we were able to save some money for the bad times. And I would say that today that policy is producing results”

SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2009

Purnell : We Can’t End Boom and Bust

James Purnell won’t thank Guido for wishing this out loud, but when the civil war starts in the Labour Party after the general election, may Purnell be on the winning side.  If he wins a not forgotten Thatcherite aspiration will be realised - we will no longer have a socialist opposition party.

He gave a speech in Chile yesterday setting out how he thinks capitalism should be saved, how it can be more egalitarian and predicting that the next decade will be capitalist.  He also wants less power for the state and politicians -  which all sounds very much like a Thatcherite agenda for popular capitalism.

The coded bit of the speech that struck Guido was this:

People are worried about the extraordinary instability that was bubbling below the long boom of the last two decades.  We can’t promise to end instability.

Who presided over that bubble? Who promised to end the instability of boom and bust? Do you think Gordon Brown will be happy with the speech?

 

Political Class Starting to Fear the Public’s Anger

Not often that Polly Toynbee, Tim Montgomerie and Guido agree: popular anger with the political class is rising.  Something that Polly wants Labour to adjust to by moving policy to the left as well as limiting public-sector fat-cat pay. Tim Montgomerie agrees on the latter but wants the Tories to wake up to popular anger by putting on hair-shirts and getting their own snoughts out of the trough.  Guido welcomes both pundits to the anti-politics banner.

Democracy is broken, the political media elite distant from the people with the two main parties offering no choice and no change.  Osborne is promising no change and blaming the economic crisis.  Taxation will remain penal, spending will remain prolific, there will be some reforms of a failed state bureaucracy but no rollback and no radicalism.  Hannan is at least making the case for a radical shift of power from the centralised state bureaucracy to people at local level.

The Cameroons can’t seal the deal with the people with pragmatism,  “Triangulation Now!” is not the banner that will get people marching.  Voters are angry with Brown and disenchanted with politicians offering more of the same.  Bedazzled during the Blair years, Cameron, Osborne and Hilton have yet to show that they realise the times have fundamentally changed.  Taking strategic advice from the wrong Danny* has left the Tories outflanked on their USP - the LibDems are now the only party promising to reduce the tax burden on the low paid.  Hannan toldNewsnight last night that people are fed up of being, “ripped off, lied to and ignored” by politicians.  Disenchantment with politicians has never been higher, most think they are overpaid and dishonest.  Hannan gets it. This crisis is an opportunity to radically change the plan.

*Finkelstein.  Nice guy, but wrong.  Danny has been consistently one political zeitgeist behind the times all his life.