In a particularly intelligent article in today’s Telegraph, Frank Field declares that the forthcoming general election will be wholly different from all other post-war elections, in that the parties will be judged on their proposals to cut the public deficit, and not on how they plan to “bribe voters with their own money”.
Pointing out that the recession has destroyed five per cent of our national wealth, Field observes that, even when the economy is growing again, there will be a monstrous gap of £80 billion between revenue and expenditure by 2013.
So the rules of the game have changed, says Field:
Here is the basis of the next decade’s politics. Whoever wins the election will have to plan to hand over an increasing share of our national wealth, first to meet interest payments, and then to repay the debt itself. These transfer payments will cut our country’s living standards.
Hence the importance of spelling out the nature of those public expenditure cuts. The sooner they start, the lower the long-term interest rates, and the smaller the amount of our future income that will have to be impounded for debt repayment.
Field’s analysis is correct; furthermore, evidence of growing public support for expenditure cuts appears in today’s Times, which carries details of a YouGov poll’s findings that, by a majority of almost three to one, voters support cuts in public spending, rather than increased taxation, as the preferred means to address the deficit.
Alistair Darling, too, understands that the rules have changed; in his speech in Cardiff this week, the Chancellor confirmed that his pre-Budget report will contain measures to reduce the deficit and went on to say:
Public spending is not a goal in itself. What matters is the results, what you get with your money – and how they help people meet their aspirations and ease their concerns.
The first priority has to be to look for areas where we can achieve greater efficiency. Some seem in a hurry to cut services. We are focussing on cutting costs.
So what the electorate will wish to know in the approach to the next election will be: how do the two principal parties propose to cut the deficit and restore budgetary rectitude? David Cameron and George Osborne know that; Alistair Darling has shown that he now gets it, too.
Sadly, however, Gordon Brown still doesn’t get it; in his speech to the TUC on Tuesday, the Prime Minister is likely to repeat the familiar fiction that yet further “investment” – his favoured euphemism for borrowing – is the only way to ride out the recession.
In doing so, the Prime Minister will demonstrate beyond doubt that he is still in the old business of seeking to bribe voters with money the country hasn’t got. But voters, if the YouGov poll is anything to go by, have decisively rejected that approach.
They, also, understand the new politics; Gordon Brown doesn’t.
Independence from what exactly?
Wales wouldn’t last two minutes without English taxpayers money, and Plaid know it.
The vast majority of Welsh people do not want to leave the UK anymore than I want a hole in the head.
Devolution is a complete piss take. Why not do it properly and devolve the power to local
authorities? And get rid of the expensive talking shop in Cardiff.
Labour had to fiddle the votes to get the yes in the first place.
I would not go so far as to call Plaid racist, but they are quite clearly amateurs living in cloud cuckoo-land.
If Plaid can’t make inroads whilst the Labour vote has collapsed (and mainly gone to the Tories) then they never will.
Adam Price enjoy your career while its lasts.
Mr Jones
“Comments are welcome, but may be edited or rejected at my entire discretion, particularly if they are defamatory, offensive, abusive or off-topic.” – from your Comments Policy.
I reckon the preceding comment exceeds at least 3 of these critera – but then, as long as it reflects the “right” politics, there’s nothing wrong with a blast of self-importance at others’ expense – is there???
Just a further thought … I believe parts of England are dependent on Wales for their water supply, while others benefit from the net energy import from Scotland.
Just in case anyone had the impression that contribution and distribution of vital resources was entirely one-way.
Well done Green, you’ve discovered freedom of speech.
Your first reaction: – to attempt to get a comment deleted that you did not agree with.
Labour for the last decade have done their best to destroy freedom of speech, no doubt the nutty socialsts in Plaid would do the same if they could get enough mad Welsh nationalists to vote for
them.
“I believe parts of England are dependent on Wales for their water supply”. Yeah, Liverpool.
Whilst the whole of Wales is dependant on English taxpayers money. Who do you think gets the raw deal?
Wales would not have free prescriptions, free tuition fees or a nice shiny pointless building in Cardiff, if not for English taxpayers money.
Just a few home truth’s. That’s if your home is Wales and your one of those’s refusing to acknowledge Wales is a principality and not a country. And unfortunately for the English taxpayer is still part of the rest of the U.K.
My ‘first reaction’ was that any post so brimming with toxic bilge would have been ruled offside, had it not been so zealously ‘on-message’.
Your follow-up reaction confirms it.
Hardly ‘free speech’, or even a respectable argument.
Among the beauties of free speech, of course, is that narrow, nasty doctrines will invariably expose themselves, and it is truly humbling to hear the claim “I would not go so far as to call Plaid racist” from someone who reveals themselves as such an anti-Welsh bigot.
If a uniform, centrally-controlled rate of income tax is not good enough for those who like to delude themselves that ‘English taxes’ royally subsidise the entire UK, let’s have full tax-raising powers transferred to Cardiff, as per the Calman Commission cobbled proposals to stem the tide towards Scottish independence?
Like other democratic national movements, Plaid’s vision is, of course, for an aspiring, inclusive Wales whose people have a genuine influence in their country’s future – shunning the mindset of the twisted Little Englander who, having forever lost his Little Empire, finds himself left with only the ‘Celtic fringes’ to dominate and disdain.
That, Morin, is the real ‘raw deal’.
Where do I begin?
First of all, I am Welsh. Born in Wales to Welsh parents.
Wales is almost totally subsidised by England. The sheer population difference illustrates that. It’s not narrow or nasty to say that, its a fact of life.
Unemployment levels and the lack of private wealth creating jobs in many parts of Wales, further the problem.
Again, Wales is not a country, it’s a principality Hence, the Prince of Wales.
The current devolution, devalues that word’s definition. I hope an incoming Conservative government abolishes the pointless Welsh Assembly and carries out real devolution, by devolving power to local authorities and real local people.
That is true localism. Even with the collapse of the Labour vote, Wales has not largely turned to Plaid. I now believe Plaid are a spent force. If they can’t mop up votes from Labour now, then they never will.
Wales is turning to the Conservative and Unionist Party.
David Jones deserves considerable credit for offering an alternative to both Labour and Plaid. I believe he will be joined by several more Conservative M.P.s representing Welsh constituencies after the next GE.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/15/wales-tories-cameron-labour
Charles Morin
You also seem quite keen that Wales should be written off, either as an insignificant English subsidiary, or dissolved as an recognisable entity.
If that kind of thinking is good for Wales, it should be equally good for England too. England is also but a ‘region’ of the UK.
Why not dissolve England as a unit, and transfer all its decision-making responsibilities to local authorities?
Think the English taxpayer would buy it??
If we believe you, they’ve already ‘bought the rights’ to Wales.
Or is this just, as it appears, a case of asserting the ‘right’ of Big Brother over Smaller Neighbour??