The greatest Economic Call of the Century. And they called it wrong.
Posted in News under National | on Oct 28 2009
The season of Party Conferences is over. Back from the Labour Party Conference, I wanted to let you know some of the issues and thoughts I picked up on during the week.
From the start of the global financial crisis this Labour government has acted decisively and effectively to help people get through, to defend jobs and to protect homes, and to safeguard our economy as far as is possible from the worst global financial crisis and recession since the 1930s. We've intervened to stimulate the economy back into growth; we've moved to protect the car industry - a vital part of our manufacturing base - through the car-scrappage scheme; small and medium size businesses are now benefitting from the tax deferment scheme. The early V.A.T. cut has already given the average family £275 off their household bills - though, of course, it was ridiculed and opposed by both the Conservatives and the Liberals; the Winter Fuel Payment has been doubled to £400 for pensioners over 80 to help them with their heating costs. To help those who've tragically lost their jobs, redundancy pay is being increased.
This is immediate help for those in immediate need.
Yet none of this would have happened without this Labour Government because, at every stage, the Conservative Party has opposed what we've, successfully, done, to protect the British economy and to safeguard livelihoods and homes.
Had we listened to the Conservative Party, the Recession would have been far, far deeper, longer and more painful for all of us this year. Let's make this clear - more hard working people would have lost their jobs; more hard working families would have been forced from their homes; we would ALL have suffered far longer.
As the Prime Minister rightly said in his speech, The Conservative Party was faced with the greatest Economic Call of the Century. And they called it wrong.
Just remember what the country was like before 1997. No minimum wage and where hundreds of thousands of the lowest paid were shamelessly exploited; no Sure Start to break the cycle of deprivation and disadvantage for the young, no working or child tax credits to help the thousands of ordinary families, the foundation of our economy; no Paternity or increased Maternity leave that strengthens families. Don't you remember the NHS Winter Crises that came regular as clockwork; the beds crises, the winter flu crises; the thousands trapped on endless waiting lists for essential treatment?
How things have changed. For 18 years Tory governments cynically starved the NHS of cash, hoping to bring in privately run compulsory insurance schemes in its place. Labour had the courage to raise NI contributions for the better off and invest the £40billion in our NHS. We now have over 40,000 more doctors and 89,000 more nurses than back then - waiting lists are down by almost 600,000, and no one has to wait more than 18 weeks for treatment. This is but one of Labour's many fundamental achievements.
So the choice is clear. A Conservative Party who were - are - prepared to 'let the recession run its course', or a Labour Government which has done everything it could to safeguard the British Economy and help the British People at their time of need, and whose decisive actions have been the example followed by every other major economy.
I am going to spend the next few months talking to as many people in the constituency as I can about the choices that this country faces. The next General election will be the most important for a generation.