Originally posted @ 3:50 pm, Fri 14th Aug 2009
Not that the highest opening weekend Football League attendance (discussed previously) constitutes the "green shoots" of economic recovery. Nothing like. Nor do other indicators, celebrated on recent front pages of traditionally Tory newspapers. House prices up. Manufacturing output up. Car scrappage scheme a success.
"Green shoots" don’t tell us anything like enough – in any economic situation, there’s always some part of the economy that is doing well.
The Bank of England's decision of a further £50 billion injection into the economy via “quantitative easing” shows that the focus remains on the economy, business and jobs.
(“quantitative easing” - the notion of printing money (a notion cos no extra money is actually printed) to buy assets that in turn allows banks to lend more.)
We have to keep helping the unemployed, especially those 24 and under. We cannot write off a generation and repeat the indifference of Tory Governments of the past ("unemployment is a price worth paying").
Currently, Labour is seeking to mitigate the recession through a combination of measures:
· low interest rates
· “quantitative easing”
· paying benefits to those losing their jobs (“automatic stabilisers”)
· the lower value of the pound
· a fiscal boost — reducing VAT and accelerating spending on projects like schools
· special projects such as a car scrappage scheme which has helped car manufacturers such as Toyota
· co-ordinated international action to share the burden of saving jobs and businesses
The Tories have opposed these actions which are hoped to be saving 500,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, Peter Mandelson continues to arrange help for manufacturing. South Derbyshire, where one-third of our workers are in manufacturing, will echo his concern at a media that keeps dismissing the manufacturing that takes place here.
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