There are still those around in denial about the scale of the crisis facing the country. They foolishly think it will be more of the same difficult circumstances that have prevailed for a year now.
This is the real ‘climate change’ ahead of us when the borrowing has to stop as the taps are turned off. Politics is NOT as usual and the sooner people realise this and react to it the sooner the crisis will end. But staying in denial, which (for electoral reasons) the Labour Party is doing, is not an option. The Labour party are playing a despicable game. They believe they will lose so they can offer an easy life because they think they will not have to face the consequences - a ‘spoiling’ tactic.
I see that Darling has made snide personal remarks about Osborne! Cheap! The Times writes "The torch has passed. Give George Osborne the credit" I prefer that!
Christina
THE TIMES 28.9.09
City out for Cameron but party barely starts
Suzy Jagger, Politics & Business Correspondent
As the Labour Party starts its most important party conference in more than a decade, David Cameron can bask in the knowledge that much of the City is rooting for him.
Any doubt that the Conservative leader may have had about whether he could rely on City votes in the general election next year were swept away at a packed banqueting hall last Tuesday evening, when the Tories played host to a private fundraiser that was all but standing room only.
The dinner, held in the ballroom of the Dorchester, located just off Park Lane and opposite Hyde Park, was heaving with bankers, industrialists, economists and retailers. They were all there to hear Mr Cameron tell them how he would fix the economy.
The black-tied bankers attending the dinner, who included Michael Spencer, the founder of Icap, Richard Gnodde, a managing director of Goldman Sachs, and Naguib Kheraj, the chief executive of JPMorgan Cazenove, are accustomed to grabbing business from one another at opposite ends of a trading screen. But the occasion united them in a common cause: to help the Conservatives to seize power for the first time in 13 years — and to replenish the party’s coffers to help them to get there.
The Tories reckon that they need about £18 million to fund their general election campaign, with voters expected to go to the ballot box in early May. Although the Conservatives are secretive about how much of that sum they have raised already, last week’s dinner will have gone some way to help them to reach their goal.
The event, which was hosted by the Carlton Club, is believed to have raised about £100,000 for the party, with each table estimated to have cost about £3,000. Most of the Shadow Cabinet, including George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, were in attendance and mingled with bankers before the supper.
The Conservatives may be well ahead in the polls, but , according to one banker, the mood was far from jubilant or celebratory. The financier, who declined to be named, said that the mood of the evening was one of foreboding.
“Of course, we were all there because we want the Conservatives to get in,” the banker said, “and there was a real sense of ‘go for it’. But there was also an atmosphere of apprehension about the task ahead, a genuine feeling of regret about the difficulties the economy is facing.
“The people sitting at that dinner are not stupid. We all know it’s going to be horrible.”
Mr Cameron addressed the 400 diners, who were hemmed in front of him round tightly packed tables. With the rallying call of “This is it”, he spent much of his 15-minute speech talking about the problems that the next government would have to overcome.
Britain is groaning under a burgeoning debt pile and a budget deficit that is expected to reach £190 billion this year. That represents about 13 per cent of GDP and is the highest of any of the OECD countries. Although the Conservatives have not been drawn on the size of public spending cuts, many observers expect them to be savage, perhaps as much as a staggering 10 per cent.
As the dinner drew to a close at 10.30pm, there were no scenes of triumph at the Dorchester bar. As the banker noted: “It was a Tuesday, a work night. And none of us are jumping for joy right now.”
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