Give the government a choice between a nice long pole and a horse to help them cross a high wire, and it looks like they’d go for the horse. There’s no doubt that they can see the wire, and that they understand how important it is not to fall off – but for some reason (perhaps an inherited love of horses), they seem determined to take the wire at a canter.
Cameron has just talked about budget cuts, emphasising the need to reduce our budget deficit and keep the confidence of the market. He’s said “How we deal with these things will affect our economy, our society – indeed our whole way of life. The decisions we make will affect every single person in our country. And the effects of those decisions will stay with us for years, perhaps decades to come”.
He’s right of course – but he’s got there by using the right formula in the wrong order – and that means he’s likely to get it wrong in the future. As Bill Clinton’s campaign team so rightly said ‘It’s the economy, stupid’, but the decisions are NOT actually about debt and trade. The real issue is that we’re living as though we had three planets at our disposal, and the key driver for that sorry state of affairs is our attitude to finance. The ‘markets’ are simply made up of people playing a game by a set of rules that make no allowances for the real world effects of their activities.
So yes, we need to reduce debt, and yes, we need to head for recovery – but the government needs to make it clear that a recovery has to address our financial hedonism, or it will involve the ultimate cost of life. The efficiency of public spending, certainly needs addressing, but the banks and banking system should be squarely in the frame at the same time.
At the moment, it looks to me like the government is preparing for Beechers Brook, and they don’t stand a chance of crossing that wire.
Filed under: Change, Current Affairs
