Matthew HancockIf you hear @ talk about
#eurozone crisis remember he led Labour through lobbies to vote against UK's
#IMF contribution this summer
Back in July the government won a vote to send £9 billion to the IMF by just 28 votes, the tightest margin yet for the Coalition government. Despite the best efforts of the whips some thirty-two Tory MPs rebelled against the government.
Osborne’s former bag carrier Matthew Hancock thinks this was a bad thing others (including Ed Balls, Guido and John Redwood) think they voted in the national interest. We were told at the time that this was not like £9 billion we would never see again, it was a contingent liability and the IMF has never failed to repay borrowings. The IMF has never faced a financial crisis on this scale before, the US is in no position to be the leading lender of last resort if the Euro shatters.Christine Lagarde of the IMF is now briefing that the IMF needs more funds to deal with the worst case scenario.
Osborne and the Treasury spin that if Britain wants to sit at the top table the taxpayers have to cough up to the IMF. Isn’t it time to let other people sit at the top table. Brazil, China and India should get a better seat. The menu doesn’t look that appealing and is overpriced.
Last night’s vote on whether to send another £9 billion to the IMF was won by just 28 votes, the tightest margin yet for this government. Despite the best effort of the whips nearly thirtyTories rebelled against the government – a combination of the usual faces as well as a large number of the new intake. The fact that Labour voted against the increase from £10.7bn to £20.15bn led to the tight 274/246 split. A relationship between of Labour and the Tory-right – the purple plot, has begun…
UPDATE: John Redwood offers some thoughts on the vote.
PARLIAMENT BACKS BAIL OUTS
Last night Parliament voted by 274 to 246 votes in favour of increasing the UK’s contribution to the IMF by £9.3 billion. That implies more than 80 Conservatives were unavailable, abstained or voted against the government. Many Labour MPs were also unavailable or abstained, when their party recommended voting against. I will check the voting lists later today.
Some of us want the UK government to use the influence it says it has at the IMF to halt the futile bail outs of Eurozone members. The debt markets show the markets do not believe that Greece can repay all its debts in full and on time. Yesterday was a day when market worries spread beyond Greece, Ireland and Portugal to Italy. Those in charge of the Euro scheme need to get a grip. It is doing a great deal of financial and economic damage, and they no longer seem to be in control of their project. The IMF should decline to bail out rich countries that have shackled themselves to a currency scheme that was badly put together and needs a thorough re think.
Word cloud quite revealing…
Given that he’s still suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party, and sits as an independent MP while the police continue to investigate his expenses, you would have thought that Denis MacShane would be keeping a low profile in Liverpool. But no, not only is he pea-cocking around the conference centre pressing the flesh, he has even had the cheek to appear on the Daily Politics.
Shameless…
Jeff Randall mentions in passing some more Guilty Menthat Peter Oborne missed in his fast-selling pamphlet for the CPS, namely the authors of an earlier pamphlet published in 2002 “Why Britain Should Join The Euro” written by Richard Layard (LSE), Willem Buiter (ex-BoE MPC and eurocrat), Chris Huhne, Will Hutton, Peter Kenen (the Princeton University academic famous ironically for his work on optimum currency areas ) and Adair Turner. In this nonsense filled pamphlet for Britain in Europe they asserted:
“Opponents of the euro have forecast disasters which have in fact never happened and which always looked most unlikely… Euro-sceptics constantly underestimated the competence of Europeans and their ability to organise things properly.”
These Guilty Men are not the types to apologise. It is remarkable that Will Hutton, Chris Huhne and Adair Turner are now prominent tub-thumpers for carbon based global warming. Demonstrating, once again, their characteristic quality of judgement.
BBC DG: Guido Gets Scoops, But Can You Believe Him? – Reuters
Chuka’s Embarrassing Teenage Choon Past – Political Scrapbook
Tony Blair and the Billionaire Heiress – Mail
Ed Balls: The The Truth About My Nazi Past – Mail
Gove’s Education Department Nest of Vipers – Ian Birrel
Gordon Brown Obsessed with Settling Scores – Mail
No Post-Conference Bounce for Clegg – Political Scrapbook
YouGov Finds 1/5 Labour Voters Prefer Boris to Ken – Peter Kellner
Same Old Tories. Really? – Ian Collins
A Tale of Two Executions – Brendan O’Neill
What If David Miliband was Labour leader? - LabourList
My Role in the Genesis of the ‘Cool Britannia’ Myth – Toby Young
Revenge of the Twitter Ghost – Crash Bang Wallace
Harriet Harman tells Women’s Hour…
“We are entirely focused on getting David … err … Ed … elected as PM at next election”
Penny Sillin 2011/09/26 at 3:49 pm commented:
So Balls has got the Clap from a Dolly.
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