I enjoyed this item picked up by another B-BBC reader….
Here’s a great onefrom the BBC financial whizkids, Labour’s years in power were in fact a goldenage….http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10516338.stm By Andy Verity
BBC2 Money Watch
‘Good times for the country can be bad times for some individuals Here’s athing – the recession made the average household better off. And the recovery has done the opposite – even before new tax rises and spendingcuts come into play. That is the message from a ground-breaking new series from the BBC which askswhat the recession and subsequent recovery have truly done to your wealth.’
The BBC like to say VAT is an evil Tory regressive tax on the poor….but whatabout quantitative easing? This devalued the pound and raised inflation….astealth tax on everyone? Andy Verity is one of the presenters of 5Live’s ‘Wake up to Money’….aprogramme which is sponsored by Alistair Darling &Co…..the favouritereprise of this programme is that the crash was caused by greedy bankers andthe ‘world recession’….not Gordon Brown and Labour spending.
They continuallyback Labour’s plans to deal with the debt…..the example they cite every timeis Japan in the 90’s….unfortunately Japan actually indulged in massivegovernment spending to try and get out of the recession…it took 10 years ofstagnation…and they are still not out yet. This was pointed out to them in an interview. The next day the presenter statedexactly the same thing….Japan made too many cuts too quickly and ‘disaster’.
Andy Verity ? The BBC are having a laugh now !
I saw this same false analogy about Japan last week. It’s complete crap because the world financial situation was entirely different 20 years ago. Also, Japan had the farmers’ savings to borrow against, which does not exist in the UK. Total nonsense.
Andy Verity puzzles me, because he’s clearly clueless and an instinctive proponent of the BBC’s point of view. Normally you can trace the BBC’s employment of such characters to the fact that their parents/siblings are already on the payroll, but the employment of Verity remains a mystery. Perhaps we should be told…
As an aside, as someone who listens to R5L from 05.00 each weekday, I’ve been aware for some time that their early morning offerings seem intended to take advantage of the vulnerable and unchallenging state of the listeners. There always seems to be more than their fair share of Global Warming and similar environmentalist offerings, as well as Verity’s “insightful” contributions at 05.30.
Whatever people might think about Nicky Campbell and Sheila Fogarty, at least they try to make it sound as though they are talking to sentient beings.
I hear Verity’s crap quite often on wake up to money when I’m out very early. He really does spout the ‘greedy’ bankers’ crap all the time.
I guess he’s just another Radio 5 stooge.
I have seldom read such drivel. He completely ignores the Labour goverment’s overspending, borrowing and money creation. Goverments have no money. The nation has the money and now it is having to put right the incompetent mismanagement of the last 13 years. Of course living standards will fall as we are having to pay up . This man is seriously economically illiterate and just about par for the course on the BBC.
And if I were him I would not mention Japan. There is simply no comparison with GB.
Verity is not even any good at disguising his Labour line. During the election campaign absolutely every interview he had with a private sector person sought to draw criticism of would be Conservative policy (or Labour’s projection of Conservative policy), i.e. the economic calamity that would follow from changing Labour policy on NI, VAT, deficit reduction, etc. No question was ever framed along the lines of “Isn’t the Brown economic legacy the worst in history?”