Re: Poor Lady Thatcher? : Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:45 pm
sally cinnamon wrote:
Now fortunately thanks to George Osborne keeping the UK's triple AAA credit rating because of the confidence he has inspired in the markets, we have record low interest rates and this should trigger a boom in private sector investment that will soon solve the unemployment programme as long as the Conservatives can manage the economy with a degree of competence, would you agree?
Britain is now but one (relatively small) element of a larger global economy. I agree that there was a time when the PM & Chancellor wielded tremendous influence over the employment sector (before the sixties) but with half the GDP of America cycled through the global market daily and the powers of politicians such as Osborne increasingly denuded by supra-national (as well as - to all intents and purposes - unaccountable) authorities such as the WTO, IMF, World Bank etc. grand notions of political and economic self-determinism are completely delusional.
Today's Prime Ministers, Presidents and Chancellors are not much more than political executives (managers, even) for a growing business class which claims no allegiance to any flag unless it is expedient to do so and is effectively beyond the reach of (national) justice.
At best Osborne can only hope to tinker with the economy in some modest, non-threatening way. Which will achieve precisely nothing. What we need is radical reform, starting first with shutting the doors to arguably the biggest tax haven in the world - Britain.
But Osborne couldn't even dream about such without being threatened with massive, catastrophic capital flight which would flatline this country. Nope, he's along for the ride like the rest of us. The only difference is he's now set for life whilst the rest of us are sinking deeper and deeper into the mire.