David Cameron gave a masterful and very significant speech to the British Chambers of Commerce in Birmingham. He apologises for not seeing the debt crisis coming and goes further to cover the Tory years in office:
We, the Conservative Party, didn’t see this as early as we could have. I believe we were right, as we did in 2006, to warn about rising levels of personal debt. But do I believe we did enough to warn about the rising levels of corporate debt, banking debt and borrowing? No.
If we’re honest, we must also recognise that some of our economic difficulties today relate to certain fundamental weaknesses that have been there for decades.
Then the killer line aimed directly at Brown:
It is only by being honest about the past that we can get things right for the future.
It is brilliant stuff.
What he says totally isolates Brown and makes him look remote. Furthermore it drives him into a corner, as Brown will not be want to be seen to react to Cameron. By saying that the Tories got matters wrong Cameron will win voters respect and trust. Any further attacks that Brown now makes on Cameron’s role as Lamont’s bag carrier at the time of the 1992 withdrawal from the ERM will look hollow.
This clever strategic move associates Cameron with the need for fundamental economic change. No longer can he be criticised for light-touch regulation and free markets.
It is by making big picture speeches like this that Cameron seals the deal with the electorate and why he will become our next elected Prime Minister.
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Clever politics.
ReplyDeleteBut also very necessary to prepare for a decade of painful structural change to our economy.
Leverage, bankers greed, ineffective regulation etc etc. Symptons not the cause.
Ignoring the fact that the components of our economy are skewed what other structural problems are there. First and foremost we have not experienced a real rise in average wage levels. In the absence of this the growth figures are illusory. Here and in the US real wages rose on average 1% pa whereas economy grew by 2.5%+- pa. Where did the balance come from. Leverage.
So we start from the position that previous growth was Potemkin based.
Which is why Cameron realises we need to look deeper and closer to uinderstand the fundamental weakness of our true state. It may mean having to cut back the state and for all to accept that we, Govt and individual, have lived way beyond our means for 15 years and that we have to have lower expectations.
This rebuilding will take longer than Thatcher's rebuilding UK which was achieved for most part in less than a decade.
I totally agree and that is why what Cameron had to say was very important. Listen to the interview I have posted above.
ReplyDelete"It is by making big picture speeches like this that Cameron seals the deal with the electorate and why he will become our next elected Prime Minister."
ReplyDeleteYep - Truly an 'Heir to Blair'.