tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7148608036370776702.post7559157131952710080..comments2023-10-26T12:25:17.435+01:00Comments on Neil Stockley: Social liberals a-go-goNeil Stockleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11049181290242914014noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7148608036370776702.post-62195735658181033252009-03-08T23:53:00.000+00:002009-03-08T23:53:00.000+00:00I think your criticism of social liberals can equa...I think your criticism of social liberals can equally be applied to economic liberals as well. Everyone is looking for the magic formula that can deliver better public services that are a) responsive to local demands, b) that cost less than before and c) do not exploit the workforce or the environment.<BR/>At the recent one day conference in London Nick Clegg warned us that to deliver the spending cuts that he persuaded conference to pass, we will have to make "tough choices". As Steve Richards pointed out, he didn't say what those tough choices were. Nor for that matter did he say what they were when conference passed his policy. At the time he gave the impression that it can be acheived by cutting waste (and that his opponents were proposing to spend it on waste and nothing else as an alternative).<BR/>I have just been to a LD conference that shows no appetite whatsoever for making those "tough choices". Everthing was going to be "properly funded". No proposals for cutting jobs or services, or making better use of technology. I even heard a suggestion from one unsympathetic MP that the party is now considering not replacing Trident - which I heartedly approve but does go against internal democracy.<BR/>Not only that, it is surely much harder to say that economic liberalism is better at generating wealth creation when we now know that up until 2007 the growth that was acheived as by an accounting sleight of hand and nothing to do with real wealth. Without that bubble, there would not have been any siginificant growth at all, and surely we have reached a time when it is unlikely that any economic strategy will deliver growth through a properly balanced economy?<BR/>Surely economics now requires a paradigm shift - and the shame is that there is no latter day Keynes who can guide us to what it is?Left Libhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06363370783879139149noreply@blogger.com