Have to laugh at the way in which the BBC are playing along with the content of the left play book that somehow “growth” is this years model! Francois Hollande’s vacuous suggestions about “growth” are treated by BBC correspodents as if they were a serious economic proposal rather than just another EU-phemism for further spending. There is no consideration of what this “growth” is, how it is going to be funded, where the cash will come from and, most obviously, why everyone has missed this notion up until this Socialist charlatan has entered the Elysee Palace. I reckon the BBC see Hollande as the John the Baptist figure for Miliband in 2015.
IT’S ALL ABOUT GROWTH?
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The set-piece “discussion” about the euro on Today this morning was between arch federalist Guy Verhofstadt, former Prime Minister of Belgium (and member in excellent standing of the Spinelli Group (unashamed EUfanatics – including Delors – who seek a United States of Europe), and Richard Corbett, adviser (from the left – he’s a Labour ex-MEP) to the president of the European Council. So a BBC signature unbiased choice of interviewees and, guess what, the “solution” to everything is more of the EU; more propping up (at our expense natch!) of the euro.
As part of this item there was an unconvincing “vox pop” which saw a Greek opting for “growth” at no cost and a German saying “Nein!” Really, why does the BBC bother with this crap? What is enlightening about this kind of thing? It’s almost as bad as the Humphrys “vox pop” rubbish in Athens at the time when a Greek referendum was a (slim) possibility. Humphrys (the very expensive, experienced doyen of BBC journalism) failed to ask the anti-austerity/hang the bankers protestors the obvious question – what was their solution. The answers might have been enlightening but why should Humphrys care? He got the taxpayers to pay for his trip to see his son and visit his property: where Greece is concerned informative journalism (if voxpopery is journalism) comes very far down the Humphrys list of priorities.
‘…why does the BBC bother with this crap?’ Pure brainwashing of its listeners, simple as that. If the nation’s trusted broadcaster keeps saying it, it must be true.
With any luck, Humphrys’ Greek gaff will be occupied by squatters in the next few weeks or so. (Don’t suppose he’ll mind too much, he’ll just go and buy himself another little bolt hole – though not anywhere in the southerly outposts of Euroland, I’ll wager.)
“Francois Hollande’s vacuous suggestions about “growth” are treated by BBC correspodents as if they were a serious economic proposal rather than just another EU-phemism for further spending.”
Well said. That is exactly how they see things. ATM on BBC News they are still going on about cuts, this time police. It’s relentless.
ATM…has more meanings and more apply: the BBC think government money (i.e. taxpayer’s cash’) is a great large free ATM!!!
Glad you cleared that one up!
EVERYBODY (except human-hating climate alarmist fascists, of course) wants to see growth. What the BBC utterly fail to differentiate is HOW to get that growth in the economy. The growth that they are pushing is growth in public sector expenditure to “push” the rest of the economy. Where is that money going to come from???
Sadly, the Government does not have the means to increase spending, without a commensurate increase in borrowing, or taxation. They are borrowing too much as it is, so increasing that will lead to disastrous increases in interest rates which would be disastrous for the economy.
Taxes are so vast and complex, that many overseas investors are not yet seeing Britain as having enough of a competitive advantage to move their industries here.
This means that the government cannot raise the money required to boost growth in the way that the BBC, Labour and their left wing acolytes demand.
So the only other way, unknown to the BBC, to create growth is to encourage inward investment, on a record scale. This can only be achieved by creating a business friendly environment of low taxes, with low levels of appropriate regulation.
It is not rocket science to understand that getting a LOT more businesses to come here to export from here to all over the world, creates revenue from overseas which is then taxed here. IF they do not come here, we get 100% of NOTHING! Better to lower corporation and other business taxes and business regulation to the degree that we get 15 – 20% of something, than 100% of nothing, with businesses moving abroad and taking jobs with them.
By reducing taxes and regulation, tax take will increase.
Excellent post. No BBC job for you at the minute.
Oi…geyza!
How dare you give us all such a clear and lucid account?
Where`s your caveats, your schmooze, your equivocations, your nuanced mature grown-up reflections?
Clearly you`ve not been marinaded at Oxbridge or interned for the right grease guns and blue sky pillboxes at the BBC or the Guardian.
Thanks for the education-but when you`re as privileges, biased and greedy for fame and a ski pass at Davos, do contact us at the BBC where we`ll try to find you somewhere dark and deep to put you.
The truth is never simple….there is no truths anyway but what gets us through the tranches of license fee funding cycles..got that, smarty pants?
The Balls Brothers!
Oi…geyza!
How dare you give us all such a clear and lucid account?
Where`s your caveats, your schmooze, your equivocations, your nuanced mature grown-up reflections?
Clearly you`ve not been marinaded at Oxbridge or interned for the right grease guns and blue sky pillboxes at the BBC or the Guardian.
Thanks for the education-but when you`re as privileged, biased and greedy for fame and a ski pass at Davos, do contact us at the BBC where we`ll try to find you somewhere dark and deep to put you.
The truth is never simple….there is no truths anyway but what gets us through the tranches of license fee funding cycles..got that, smarty pants?
The Balls Brothers!
As Liam Halligan wrote in last Sunday’s Telegraph
“economic growth” isn’t a decision a government can opt for. It is, instead, an outcome – an outcome we want and need, and which can be achieved in a variety of ways, none of which is guaranteed.
Exactly: it’s not a choice of tactics – it’s the objective of policy. In other words – unlike the BBC Narrative would have us believe – “growth” is not the choice here. We all want growth but it’s the target. It’s the end not the means. The choice (such as it is) is how we get there.
The first thing is to recognise that the answer to over-borrowing and over-spending (thanks Gordon) is not to borrow and spend and (especially) to waste resources on measures “to tackle climate change”. This is particularly so if those measures depend for their validity on the near-criminality of much of “climate science”, the scam of CAGW, the bollocks of “renewable” (especially wind) energy, and the obsession with the more or less harmless production of CO2.
Great post, but beware spinmasters of the Left who have increasingly been putting the argument that every public sector job lost affects the private sector e.g. less money spent on housing, in shops, restaurants etc. Of course, this argument is always left at that and never challenged by the BBC because it would be shown to be a load of bollocks. Thus the notion that the public sector actually finances the private sector is the one that is upheld, and sticks in the mind of an electorate who by and large can’t be bothered thinking too hard about it. Not dissimilar to how ‘it’s all the banks’ fault’ became the majority opinion.
Oh dear-going belly up in Greece then?
I thought we`d heard for years now that this was not-never could-be an option….ever.
Now I can see Merckels a mere politician..but what is the BBCs excuse?
From Flanders to Peston and back again…throughout their tenure up atop the BBCs minarets, they`ve been telling me that the Eurozone could not contemplate the leaving by Greece…it`s an article of faith, and any such talk would spook the markets…and Andrew Balls amongst others would have said so constantly these lasy couple of years.
The likes of Moulton, Terry Smith, Boris and Brogan have said the opposite.
Anybody at the BBC willing to play us their prophetic expertise and insight then since 2010 then?….or able to let us hear Terry Smith again?
Nah…we are where we are…and here is Mandelson and Ashdown to tell our Stephanie where we`d best go from here!
Utterly shameless and goldfish like in their stupidity…how much are we paying for these tossers now then?
Pay then in drachmas…
And just heard the worlds greatest economic guru, ever, on PM (yet again) telling us how Greece can avoid a run on their banks. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, returning by overwhelming popular demand, I give you the greatest Chancellor this country never had, Alastair Darling!’
Eddie Mair: ‘But Mr. Darling, why weren’t you able to prevent this for Northern Rock? We can all remember the tens of thousands of people queueing down the high streets of Britain wanting to get their money out’.
That last bit was made up, by the way. In reality Mair just listened in rapt admiration, throwing in the occasional feed for Darling to continue blathering about how wonderful he is. Sickening.
Can’t see why Greek exit from EU is disaster….for Greeks it would be a good thing..more flexibility and control over economy.
The banks not get paid as Greece defaults?
Well….hasn’t Greece already defaulted? The banks are only getting paid now with money ‘borrowed’ by Greece from the EU….and with having to pay the interest attached.
If Greece goes belly up why not cut out the middle man, Greece, and just pay the Banks direct….after all the banks have already agreed a massive ‘haircut’ on their loans….so de facto default shoudn’t be a problem…should it?
Greeks then stand on own two feet and kickstart their economy…..if they implement decent economic projects money will still flow into the country to fund that….and people will still get fed.
‘The Commentator’:
“The Sack of Berlin”
[Excerpt]-
“But since the anti austerity activists are all about fairness how fair would it be to the Germans to have them fork out for everyone else? We hear that the “social fabric” of places like Greece, Spain or Ireland is tearing asunder but wasn’t that always the inevitable fate of a social fabric woven from easy credit and borrowed money? ”
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1210/the_sack_of_berlin
The BBC definition of growth. Put up the TV tax. That is just about the level of their economic analysis.
What will Hollande do about the Islamisation of Paris (and of France)?:-
5 min video.
“‘Islamization’ of Paris a Warning to the West”
The growth of the Islamisation of France may be the only growth which Hollande will deliver.
And the growth of debt, poverty and civil violence.
INBBC will politically admire Hollande even more as he assists 80 million Muslim Turks into the E.U (and UK), thereby achieving the key rapid ‘growth’ of the Islamisation of Europe:-
“Turkey shows interest in reviving EU bid ”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/9271108/Turkey-shows-interest-in-reviving-EU-bid.html
INBBC approves 80 million Muslim Turkey membership of E.U.
In this ‘report’, INBBC’s Mr HEAD does not mention opposition to this Islamisation of Europe.
“EU seeks fresh start with Turkey on membership bid”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18100706
Alternative:-
‘Stop Turkey’!
http://stopturkey.blogspot.co.uk/
I know it was on a smaller scale, but didn’t Blair beat them to it about 10 years ago allowing Abu Hamza to hold prayer meetings in the street?
Yes; all part of Labour’s wonderful Islamising legacy, as supported by INBBC:-
“How dare a foreign court tell us what to do?”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2127894/Abu-Hamza-extradition-How-dare-foreign-court-tell-do.html#ixzz1v4lfzvnG
@Alan: There are two economic arguments I see for Greece exiting the Euro for and against. In favour, Greece leaves, defaults on its debt and tourism jumps as the currency plummets. Against, the currency plummets and Greeks become unable to afford staples of food, energy and imported goods. In addition the structural problems of widespread tax evasion in Greece will take time and political will to fix. Finally with inflation and currency instability any continued deficit would need to be funded by double digit+ interest rates.
‘Spiked’:-
Brendan O’Neill –
“Sorry, but SYRIZA
won’t save Europe.
“The radical Greek leftists, along with Hollande in France, pose as anti-austerity yet promote ideas which will condemn Europe to long-term penury. ”
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/12448/
Of course, BBC-NUJ’s Comrade MASON, Father of the Chapel at ‘Newsnight’ seems to be politically embedded with ‘Syriza’:-
“Greece: Trying to understand Syriza”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18056677
Growth with what exactly? Europe, with the exception of the Germany, doesn’t have anything that can stimulate industry at present. The arrogant socialist is propagating economics of the mad house; France and and Greece are in no position to bargain with the world’s financial markets. This is pure politicking and a gamble that will end in mass social unrest. I would like to think that these useful socialist idiots are doing us a favour with their grand visions of saving the euro; unfortunately, however, due to the incompetence of Liebour’s handling of Britain’s finance, we will be dragged down into the quagmire because of our massive exposure to Greek debt. Yet again, the hard left will damage this country. There are alternatives to the greed of neoliberalism, but one will not find them in socialism. But the BBC will never highlight alternatives because if it wasn’t for socialism and the accompanying sense of entitlement that blindly follows it, the BBC wouldn’t exist.
It’s that age old problem for socialists:
eventually they run out of other people’s money to spend.
Boom Boom!
I’m well pleased thAT Hollande got elected as he will bankrupt France and take down the Euro with it.
Yes, I can see your point mate but he and those irresponsible and ungrateful left wing buffoons in Greece could also bankrupt Britain! Unless, of course, that political coward Cameron does as he said he would in his party’s ‘manifesto’ and give us a referendum on Europe.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2145196/EU-Referendum-You-dont-like-idea-Dave–WILL-say-EU.html
Bring on the referendum!
I’ve just sat through a turgid Newsnight ‘debate’ about Austerity Vs Growth where much was made of not cutting welfare and spending much more on infrastructure to grow the economy.
Fine, but then juxtaposed against that the next item reporting on how increasing spending to expand the welfare state in China is dragging back growth and that as wages increase their competitiveness is shrinking.
Newsnight really don’t see that these these two items are utterly connected and carry on giving airtime to people who want to spend their way out of the mess we’re in.
“Strictly Come Dancing judges cash in as austerity is strictly over at the BBC”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9270233/Strictly-Come-Dancing-judges-cash-in-as-austerity-is-strictly-over-at-the-BBC.html
Well, I have always equated that bloke from strictly who says things with Tom Jones, career achievement-wise.
As, evidently, have the market rate talents at the BBC who get paid by how much they blow.
The difference between those calling for “Austerity” and those against is that those calling for austerity want to try to live within their means, and those opposing it will very soon have no means to live within.