Dear David Aaronovitch,
I find it very amusing that you are trying to mount a backlash against the Labour rebels in this way. Throughout your article in The Times today, you suggest that the “government’s natural supporters are merely whingeing - and forgetting the achievements”. Oh dear, you really haven’t been paying attention for the last few months.
Let us look at the Labour achievements that you claim have been forgotten by the party supporters:
“mortgages had become cheapo” - yes, they have, thanks to reckless and poorly-judged lending on the part of banks. This has NOTHING to do with the government and has played a huge part in the record levels of debt and the number of people facing negative equity.
“unemployment was low” - by some measures, perhaps, but the number of economically inactive people in the UK is around 4-5 million thanks to Labour putting people on benefits to stop them being included in the unemployment count.
“crime was, in general, falling” - a contentious statement. The latest figures show that even though recorded crime might be falling, violent crime is rising and fear of crime is higher than ever.
“the economy was performing better than in most other similar countries” - oh please. Propping up an economy based on consumer debt and reckless band lending is hardly ‘performing better’. In fact, house prices are now falling and our currency is very weak compared to the Euro due to the phony growth of the last ten years. Our service industry growth has been masking serious cracks elsewhere in our economy.
“huge infrastructural improvements, as evidenced in new school buildings and hospitals” - we now have a PFI debt of around £90 billion thanks to Labour’s crackpot building initiatives, where new schools and hospitals are underused and often empty (literally) due to Labour’s mismanagement.
So Mr Aaronovitch, the Labour “rats” may be sinking Brown’s ship as you posited, but they are doing so with good reason. Labour has been in power for 11 years and has done untold damage to our economy and society. If I were in their position, I’d be sending out my CV.
Yours sincerely,
A.Tory
4 responses so far ↓
Martin from Essex // April 29, 2008 at 8:36 am
Thank God for the Tories.
Letters From A Tory // April 29, 2008 at 11:45 am
Amen to that. If this list constitutes the best achievements of a government after 11 years, the Conservatives will need some divine assistance to sort this country out after 2010.
Snafu // April 29, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I wish I had your faith in the Tories! None of their policies appeal to me.
When they do announce them, they offer nothing substantially different from Labour anyway!
Unable to promise tax cuts whilst attacking Labour tax rises! Unable to offer any new Grammar schools. Accepting Labour spending plans for the first two years of a Labour administration, unable to do anything on immigration…
Overlooking public sector pension reform or welfare reform..
They have no intellectual rigour!
Letters From A Tory // April 30, 2008 at 8:23 am
The Conservatives don’t really have any policies at the moment. People keep criticising them for this, but in reality they’d be stupid to release their policies two years before an election. Hopefully by May 2010 you’ll have seen a lot more of what Conservatives really stand for (and hopefully, I’ll think they are talking sense as well).
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