Philip Hammond claims that "hard-left extremist infiltrators" in the Labour Party are trying to drag the UK back to the 1970s, which would be a Bad Thing:
If you really think that a political economy that's slightly to the right of Ted Heath's UK would be dangerously radical, maybe you should consider the possibility that it's you who's the ideological extremist here.
"Since 1979, when Britain turned its back on the policies of Corbyn and McDonnell revival show this week, living standards in this country have doubled ... It’s an argument between nostalgic idealism on Corbyn’s part and pragmatism on our part … Every country except North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and Zimbabwe has adopted that system. What he’s offering them is an illusion, a pretence."Two things:
- Trend growth in living standards continued at roughly the same rate before and after 1979 (the only noticeable slump was after the 2008 global financial crisis)
- Nobody in the 1970s was agitating for renationalisation, or for a tax hike like the one in the 2017 Labour manifesto (45% tax on earnings above £80,000 and then 50p for each pound earned over £123,000), because in 1971, under Conservative prime minister Ted Heath, the railways, coal industry and energy supply companies were already in public ownership and the top rate of tax on earned income was already 75% (a surcharge of 15% on investment income kept the top rate on that income at 90%).
 |
| A hard-left extremist from the 1970s |
If you really think that a political economy that's slightly to the right of Ted Heath's UK would be dangerously radical, maybe you should consider the possibility that it's you who's the ideological extremist here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment