Our Economy: Brown Must Live in Real World (Bristol East Liberal Democrats)

Bristol East Liberal Democrats <info@bristoleastlibdems.org.uk>

Our Economy: Brown Must Live in Real World

December 13, 2008 10:40 PM

Gordon Brown is wrong to blame the UK's current financial position on the international economic environment. Government is there to develop the nation's internal interests in the context of the external environment it exists in, and this it failed to do. Against that background, it is the duty of the Official Opposition - the Conservative Party - to identify what is wrong and protest energetically when things are wrong. Clearly, things have been wrong for many years; the Labour Government and the Conservative Opposition both failed the nation.

It is incomprehensible that Sir John Gieve, the very man in charge of financial stability at the Bank of England - in the global information age no less - did not act to mitigate the onset of a credit crunch that he foresaw. We have unparalleled global access to information and the Labour Government and the Conservative Party should not now be allowed to excuse themselves for not keeping pace with events. In this global information age, the international financial environment should have been systematically analysed by Ministers and actions taken.

Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg, has called for a new era of financial discipline, an end to tax rises, and an economic stimulus package of tax cuts for low and middle-income earners to steer Britain through the coming economic turmoil. This is just the tonic needed to mitigate the 'if they want it they can have it' populism recently confirmed by Geoffrey Robinson, MP as policy in Gordon Brown's Treasury.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable MP was right in 2003 when he criticised the Government for allowing unbalanced growth led by consumer spending based on borrowing. Re-capitalisation and liquidity done, the banks are now putting rebuilding their balance sheets first. They cannot be trusted to put the public first. A new age of integrated regulation - regulation that addresses economic, social and environmental policies together is what is needed. An integrated regulatory compliance framework would relieve tensions between economic expediency and the implied competitive forces, and also set our environmental essentials and social needs in that economic context. The UK Government should have developed and delivered policy based on the combined needs of economic, social and environmental responsibility.

We live in a global information age. This enables huge data capture, processing and reporting at exceptionally low cost - for the internal and external environment. It is the duty of Government to keep pace with all available tools and instruments it needs for the UK's interests and act accordingly. The Labour Government and its Official Opposition - the Conservative Party must not be allowed to absolve themselves from not knowing about an adverse international economic environment. If the information was not there, they are culpable for not ensuring that it was.

Instead, we have Government blaming everyone but themselves and the Public are having to foot the bill. To help overcome its apparent lack of international economic awareness, the least it could do now is to seek an international regulatory compliance framework for all nations willing to participate. This framework could be jointly administered by the World Bank and the United Nations. Their combined mission should be to develop and encourage regulatory compliance based on integrated social, environmental and economic policies. If we can cede power to a European Government, we can cede power to an even higher body, a body that transcends continents.