Ed Miliband says government has no ideas left on economy

[alp227]

Ed Miliband has accused the government of running out of ideas on the economy and said Labour was the party to save the UK from a "lost decade".

Reflecting on the budget, Miliband said the government was "shrugging their shoulders" at the prospect of five more years of austerity and said the prime minister was making a big mistake by supporting continued austerity.

"The Tories have resigned themselves now to a lost decade," the Labour leader said in an interview with The Times. "George Osborne is saying there is going to be another five years of low growth and borrowing, with living standards being squeezed. The danger is that people become despairing, that they think there is no change that is possible.

"At the next election, the biggest opponent will be the sense that no one can sort out this problem. Our challenge is not to let people succumb to fatalism and think nothing can be done."

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/23/ed-miliband-government-ideas-economy

[LeftishBrit]

1. Excellent points

Except that it's not that the government has 'no ideas left' on the economy. It's that some of them never had any ideas at all, and some do have ideas, which are all about kicking people when they're down, and favouring wealthy donors.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. This housing boom will be perfect, says Osborne

The chancellor insisted that all the previous housing booms were fatally flawed, but that after a series of late nights, hunched over his desk, he had now perfected the system.

He told MPs: “The key difference this time is that I am making it much easier for people with no money to get a mortgage.

“So then, right, they will have a house and the value of that house will just keep going up and up and so every few years they will borrow a bit more money against the value of their house and then spend it in the shops.
...
As Conservative MPs cheered, he added: “I know. And it’s actually a bit weird that no-one has thought of it until now.”

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/this-housing-boom-will-be-perfect-says-osborne-2013032163413

[dipsydoodle]

3. All joking aside- that whole idea is fraught with danger

They seem to have made no account of those who would either buy a second home and rent it out or buy another home and then sell the one they already owned. Its for a fixed three year period and the only thing you could bank on is that close to the end of three years house prices could go through the roof due to excess demand - similar to when multiple mortgage relief ended late '80s.

The only bit they'd given sufficient thought to was that applicants would need completely clear credit records to confirm willingness to pay and sufficient income to demonstrate ability to pay.