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How would the UK be now under Labour?
Well it's been a couple of months now since the GE election and the staggering loss for Labour under Miliband. However if they had won, how would this country be now.
Would we be facing a meltdown in the financial markets and an increase in the social security bill?
Would we be facing a reversal in the good economic news we've had under the tories and Coalition for the last 5 Years?
Would we be seeing a rise in Unemployment?
I would say yes we would for all these things. The Miliband/Balls government that we luckily didn't get would have been another Labour disaster for this country.
Would we be facing a meltdown in the financial markets and an increase in the social security bill?
Would we be facing a reversal in the good economic news we've had under the tories and Coalition for the last 5 Years?
Would we be seeing a rise in Unemployment?
I would say yes we would for all these things. The Miliband/Balls government that we luckily didn't get would have been another Labour disaster for this country.
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No £9 minimum wage under Labour, the party that supports benefits and not work.
So they would have put Scotland's interests above the English (even though Scotland thoroughly rejected Labour at the election....)
So higher borrowing.
Remember Jim Callaghan and his dealings with the IMF ?
There's no £9 minimum wage now either...that's not due until 2020...though I realise that playing fast and loose or at least vague with "monetary rates" comes second nature to a banker.:p
Not yet - mind you I am surprised out how quickly it went wrong in Greece.
I suspect we would be facing increasing unemployment, but not for a year or two. Debt would be going up even faster. Sterling going down fuelling inflation - which in turn would mean interest rates going up
But these things take time.
As nothing would have changed yet, it would be similar to the situation in which we find ourselves in as I write this.
No. However, we might be hearing less enthusiasm from the financial sector if the noises coming out of Westminster were more likely to receive a thumbs up from the likes of Jol44.
I doubt it. I suspect Miliband and Balls were capable enough on the technical side.
No.
I doubt that's true for the most part. Neither Miliband or Balls were likely to attempt the sort of economy that would make GGP a happy camper. For the most part, I suspect it would have been business as usual for UK PLC, with some tinkering around the edges.
The full impact on the economy of restricting in-work benefits and pushing up the minimum wage is yet to be seen. For example, it's not impossible to imagine the recently announced changes slowing the growth in employment and suppressing the retail economy. That has the potential to start a vicious circle of increasing unemployment that reinforces and feeds a general cooling of the economy.
So perhaps we would have been better off with Miliband and Balls?
Of course, my "what-if" speculation is as worthless as yours. Much better brains than ours have (I suppose) decided the economy can stand to pay higher wages and endure a slow-down in spending among the poorest among us. Time will tell.
Sure it could. A lot worse.
Or have you somehow managed to overlook the whole Greek thing?
The CPI rate has been hovering around zero since February, and moved into negative territory in April for the first time on record, dropping to -0.1%. Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, said the latest figure was good news for consumers.
"[With] earnings growth currently seeing clear improvement and employment high and rising, purchasing power is currently in rude heath," he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33518710
this
I've lived through lots of governments and they might tinker around the edges of life but the big changes come from technology and social attitudes
Government influence is vastly over-rated
Under Sturgeons' thumb.
Neither Balls or Milliband had any stomach for cuts - and they were bounced into promising those that they did. Further they were both advising Brown when he started his spending spree. Indeed much of that policy is straight out. With the reluctance to cut spending then you would see the structural deficit grow again. That in turn would hit sterling as the bond markets start to doubt that the UK would pay it's debts. Inflation would go up, and subsequently interest rates. That in turn would hit unemployment as taxes would eventually rise to support the increased payments.
Not in the long term - short term you might feel better but over the long
The Conservatives did seek advice before settling on the value of the NLW and the Treasury has an extensive mathematical model of the economy it uses to work out what would happen. No doubt the delay in some of benefits is precisely because this is the estimate of when the economy can sustain them.
Less nationalistic.
basically an absence of almost everything the Conservative party represents.
but not more than Labour would have done.
The Coalition and subsequently the Conservative government would always borrow until the deficit was eradicated. (PSBR in surplus)
Now estimated at 2019/2020
If people are moaning now about austerity - can you imaging what the cuts would have been had the government immediately made the PSBR a surplus.