Re: Have we been misled; are we owed an apology?
Wed Dec 19, 2012 4:14 pm
80% of the current 'austerity' measures were instigated by Labour when still in office, only 20% by the Tories. Labour's biggest mistake, in electoral terms, was not explaining to uncommitted voters just how deep and savage their own cuts were (particularly in the area of sickness and age-related benefits).
The Labour cuts would have been bigger too but for the statistical fluke that in the year before the election the official figures for inflation were negative and so some cuts which were tied to the rate of inflation were temporarily postponed.
Labour has yet to state which, if any, of those later cuts imposed by the Tories they would reverse if they were back in office. There's a good reason for that, any future Labour government will benefit from those cuts while at the same time being able to blame the "wicked Tories" for having made them.
The Labour cuts would have been bigger too but for the statistical fluke that in the year before the election the official figures for inflation were negative and so some cuts which were tied to the rate of inflation were temporarily postponed.
Labour has yet to state which, if any, of those later cuts imposed by the Tories they would reverse if they were back in office. There's a good reason for that, any future Labour government will benefit from those cuts while at the same time being able to blame the "wicked Tories" for having made them.