The problem with the premise that Labour are poor on the economy

Comment on Why I’ll Never Vote Conservative at a General Election by David.

The problem with the premise that Labour are poor on the economy and it’s resulted in a failing of our economy over Labours time in office is not true.

You can’t have done any serious research on this as you’d know the information I’m about to give you and then you wouldn’t have said what you just said.

Take a look at https://investing.curiouscatblog.net/2010/03/15/government-debt-as-percentage-of-gdp-1990-2008-usa-japan-germany/

In particular this graph from the article which shows debt relative to GDP for major economies.

Of the 8 major economies listed, only Korea had lower debt relative to GDP than the UK.

Yes, we have had a deficit even in the good time, but so has most major economies like ours.

I have to admit as a person who hates to be in debt I don’t fully understand why major economies like Britain, Germany, USA etc… have kept this level of debt in the growth years. They keep this level of debt so they can afford to pay for things earlier than if they had to wait until the country had a surplus. Not very smart IMHO, but then I don’t pretend to be an economist.

What I know from this information is it’s not that Labour are running the economy like numpties, but it’s the norm to run at a debt level of over 40% GDP and in comparison to our trade partners, our debt level is lower than theirs.

If you were right about Labour and “management of the economy, Gordon Brown’s record has been like a child in a candy shop” wouldn’t we expect to have a much higher level of debt relative to GDP for the period 1997 up to when the banking crisis hit?

I see a stable level of debt up until the credit crunch and even then it’s lower than similar economies like Germany. Labours run the economy very well compared to similar countries and better than the Conservatives IMO since they have kept the debt level stable and managed to spend a lot of money on public services like the NHS etc… The Tories struggled to keep our debt level down and cut public services (double fail).

The way you talk we’d expect to see our government debt along the lines of Japan’s which looks like it’s tripled percentage wise!!!

You are wrong about Labour, they’d manged the economy well up until the world banking crisis resulting in growth and stable levels of government debt.

Even now with the very expensive bailing out the banks and economic stimulus package, the level of debt is still lower than most similar economies like Germany.

After looking a these numbers you have to admit you are wrong.

“your comments imply that you think the UK government has not got a financial problem.”

It wasn’t my intention to imply that. I was trying to show that our economy and in particular how it’s been managed by Labour was not an unmitigated disaster as the vast majority of people who comment about it on my site seem to think (clearly they aren’t doing this sort of research and just listening to the tabloid media for their sound bites!).

Of course we are in financial difficulties, (it’s s huge debt. I never said it wasn’t) but it’s been much worse in the past and unlike in the past (after World War II) we have a strong adaptable economy that can cope with this level of debt without having to completely destroy what Britain is currently all about under Labour: good public services, improved NHS, workers rights near the top of the agenda all good stuff IMO.

It will mean belt tightening, but it’s not so bad that we need to panic like the Conservatives have planned. Lets not forget when the banking crisis hit the Tories didn’t want to do anything to lesson the pain! Every step of the way it was cut, cut, cut, cut…. and it’s only recently it’s changed from cut, cut, cut to we can save Britain by pretty much only being efficient (total rubbish)!

We could keep the debt levels relatively high for decades to come (we had to do that after World War II), but it’s better to bring the debt under control at a speed that doesn’t damage services too much (there’s got to be some damage) and doesn’t send 100s of thousands of British people to the unemployment lines as that will result in even more debt.

I think Labour have it about right and Conservatives have got it wrong pretty much on everything economy wise.

David