Quote Originally Posted by Elwood Blues View Post
AS Harold Wilson is often quoted as saying "A week is a long time in politics" BOb

10 years is a Millenium!

Politics have changed greatly since 2010 particularly in the last year. The Tory party had already started to say that we would not be returning to austerity and the pandemic has now accelerated this.

I think it is now recognised that in an age of very low interest rate increasing the National Debt is not such a problem as it was when interest rates were higher. If I remember correctly back in 2010 when the Government embarked on its austerity program (which to be fair Labour were also going to do except we now of course have no idea whether it would have been as strict or lasted as long as the Tory version) the thought was that the low interest rates would soon start to go up making too large a National Debt an expensive proposition.

Thus the plan was to decrease the annual deficit so as to make the debt growth smaller.

The perceived wisdom now is that interest rates have remained low and are likely to do so for a while so we should take advantage of them and borrow more now.

Also as Lord Finkelstein the Times columnist said the strength of the Conservative Party over the years is it ability to adapt itself to changing circumstances. Thus it sees no dichotomy in championing austerity 10 years ago and splashing the cash now.

On the hand when Labour has to change course it is far more difficult for them to do
As I said in a previous post, I haven't voted Labour with any enthusiasm in ages and my politics are far more anti Conservative now than pro Labour - when I vote for them it's much more to do with a feeling of stopping a Tory win in my constituency than any great expectation of what Labour will do.

You talk about "perceived wisdom" and columns by Tory hacks about changing to adapt itself to changing circumstances, I prefer to see a party without principles shifting their position to cling to power at all costs. That said, have they really moved on from austerity? Much of the reaction I saw to the last budget suggested not. While I accept that the pandemic has changed things enormously, we've still set for the same pay freezes and cuts in spending that we had when "we were all in it together" back in 2020. Incidentally, austerity under the Conservatives didn't begin and end in 2010 - I wasn't quite accurate when I said ten years of austerity, but it was nine and a half years of it from May 2010 to December 2019, because I refuse to accept that the May Government had ditched that policy.

Therefore, we aren't talking ten years ago, we're talking less than eighteen months ago and now we have the Chancellor talking again of the need for cuts and yet, despite the zig zagging which saw them talking about using the sort of spending policies supported by Labour and other opposition parties in the second half of the last decade, their support remains constant.

After the Senedd election results, we're seeing the old claims about people voting for anyone or anything as long as they're wearing a red rosette given an airing and yet the irony is that, so often, the people who use that analogy feel the exact same way about anyone or anything wearing a blue rosette.