He's got a grip on cash
MR SIBBALD (Have a Word with Mr Brown, Letterbox, Febrary 19, 2010) casts doubt on recent good economic news. A little more detail may help explain why there are grounds for optimism.
Until recently, the government said the taxpayer could expect to break even from its Asset Protection Scheme that helped to save the banks from their greed and folly. It has now become clear that we will make clear 5billion profit in fees from Lloyds and the Royal Bank of Scotland for the government guarantee that prevented them from going bust. It is also clear that the govenment's intervention in our economy has stopped it from plunging into a depression. If nothing had been done, many existing companies would have failed and unemployment would be much higher.
Mr Sibbald tried to make an issue out of the cost of govenment aciton, but how would the Tories have dealt with the economic mess created by the banks? If they had sat on their hands they would have allowed a depression to develop with all its extra pain for industry and for the people of this country. They now want to make the savage cuts to government spending that would both deprive people of essential services and push the British economy back towards disaster.
In spite of the bank-induced crisis, the economy would look healthier now but for the loss of British industry that took place under the Thatcher governments. It seems the current generation of Conservatives has failed to learn from her mistakes and from what it took to lift the world economy out of the dpression of the 1930s. This might be ancient history for the Reporter's younger readers but we must understand it if we are to avoid repeating the disasters of the last century.
Fortunately the govenment does have the understanding of economics that the Tories appear to lack. When the casino bankers brought the economy to its knees, Mr Brown and Mr Darling took the right decisions to safeguard the national economic nterest. At the very least Conservaties should be avoiding statements and policies that would undermine recovery.
MICHAEL HUTCHINSON
Gregory Springs Lane
MIRFIELD
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Weather for Batley
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
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