Nick Clegg on the UK economy at Catallaxy Files

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Nick Clegg on the UK economy

So I’m in London, for a brief visit before heading on with the European safari, reading the afternoon zero-price newspaper on the tube that contains an article on Nick Clegg’s keynote speech to the annual Liberal Democrat Conference. This comment caught my attention:

We have taken big and bold steps to support demand and boost growth. And we stand ready to do so again until self-sustaining growth returns.

As the great philosopher Joda said, “That is why you fail.”

The UK has experienced a double dip recession – so you have to wonder how the Clegg strategy has worked out. The key to economic recovery is not on the demand side but on the supply side. It is here that Clegg gets it exactly wrong. He then rules out reducing the tax rate:

If we ask people to take less out or pay more in, we’ll start with the richest and work our way down, not the other way round.

In other words, the UK government will not be cutting spending.

Written by Sinclair Davidson

September 27th, 2012 at 5:48 am

Posted in Uncategorized

7 Responses to 'Nick Clegg on the UK economy'

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And this man is David Cameron’s partner in crime!!
Oh how the Party of the great Margret Thatcher has gone to the dogs.

johno

27 Sep 12 at 6:47 am
Its amazing what you can state you will achieve when you silence any conservative concerns about spending other people’s money.

Token

27 Sep 12 at 9:07 am
Lefty Dave is such a moron, not only does he dis’ the Republicans and suck up the Sun King, he actaully thinks the lefty media will give him a fair go:

The Prime Minister’s appearance on David Letterman’s chatshow was always going to be tricky, but he was caught out pretty sharply by his host’s questions about British history. Who wrote “Rule Britannia”? What does “Magna Carta” mean? Mr Cameron didn’t know, floundering obviously.

“It would be good if you knew,” Mr Letterman told the sheepish PM, who took a minute or two to catch on and grasp that he’d been caught out by his host’s “dumb American” pose.

With idiots like Dave you can see that Nigel Farage’s party will be taking votes from the limp wristed “Conservative” party.

Token

27 Sep 12 at 9:13 am
Indeed, anyone with a £1 million-plus home will be treated as if they are suspected of tax-dodging just because they own it.

Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence? Or the equally fundamental doctrine that it is wrong to trawl for offences without due cause for suspicion?

And in any event, the better-off already do pay more in tax than those on more limited incomes.

But for the Lib Dems, it appears that anyone whose assets are worth more than they think reasonable is to be treated as an enemy of the people.

Thus Nick Clegg told his party’s conference: ‘I want to reward people who put in a proper shift, not those who sit on a fortune. People for whom a bonus means a few extra quid at Christmas, not a million-pound windfall.’

So on preposterous Planet Clegg, working is good — as long as you don’t actually make any money, other than ‘a few extra quid at Christmas’.

All those who work hard enough to buy a house whose value goes up a lot are to be given no credit for industriousness or prudence, but to be treated as if they had won the Lottery — which justifies the State grabbing some of this ‘windfall’ for itself.

And note also Clegg’s implicit assumption that the only worthy form of work is to be employed. Those who do the employing, however, are to be punished for making money.

This is an attack not on wealth but on wealth creators. But when the rich are targeted in this way — as we can see from France, where President Hollande has imposed the kind of swingeing taxes on the rich that the Lib Dems doubtless dream of inflicting upon Britain — the tax-take actually goes down, and the wealthiest flee the country.

Indeed, at precisely the moment that Britain urgently needs more wealth to be created if it is to struggle out of recession, the Coalition has set up a unit whose sole purpose is to target affluence as if it were some kind of disease to be stamped out.

This is not just the politics of envy — it’s the politics of sheer asinine imbecility. It really is so utterly bonkers that it can only be explained as driven by the zeal of a fanatic.

There was a whiff of this from Danny Alexander when, trying to show he was not as wealthy as David Cameron or George Osborne, he declared: ‘I have a two-bedroom flat in London worth £300,000 to £400,000 and a home in Scotland worth a bit less.’

Ah yes: the knee-jerk sanctimoniousness of the ideologue who draws an artificial line in the moral sand — only £400,000! — and then damns everyone beyond it.

Such posturing is even more distasteful since the Chief Secretary himself avoided paying capital gains tax when his London property was designated his main home for tax purposes, even though he described it as his second home to maximise his expenses claims as an MP.

As we all know, the Lib Dems desperately want to impose a ‘mansion tax’ on all homes worth more than £2 million, a move blocked by David Cameron. Targeting the ‘affluent’ who own homes worth more than £1 million looks very much like a sneaky way of getting this ‘mansion tax’ by the back door.

So is the Prime Minister going to roll over and let this happen? What on earth are Tories for if not to protect the country from this kind of socialist wrecking ball?

This war on affluence is nothing less than a war on prosperity and on Britain’s whole economic future.

http://www.melaniephillips.com/mr-clegg-wages-war-on-britains-economic-future

Ivan Denisovich

27 Sep 12 at 9:27 am
Hmmm…wish the Lib Dems were the Liberals of old. Alas, the conservative and Lib Dem voters must vote for UKIP and the LPUK to reclaim freedom.

.

27 Sep 12 at 9:36 am
It’s difficult to see how the Poms are going to get themselves out of this problem. The Tories and Lib Dems are stuck in tax and spend thinking, and Labour is worse.

It could end up as a 25 year recession, largely self-inflicted.

DavidLeyonhjelm

27 Sep 12 at 9:48 am
What do you do when the electorate believes that government can dole out money like they are sourcing it from Lindsay’s magic pudding?

Token

27 Sep 12 at 10:39 am

And this man is David Cameron’s partner in crime!!
Oh how the Party of the great Margret Thatcher has gone to the dogs.

johno

27 Sep 12 at 6:47 am

Its amazing what you can state you will achieve when you silence any conservative concerns about spending other people’s money.

Token

27 Sep 12 at 9:07 am

Lefty Dave is such a moron, not only does he dis’ the Republicans and suck up the Sun King, he actaully thinks the lefty media will give him a fair go:

The Prime Minister’s appearance on David Letterman’s chatshow was always going to be tricky, but he was caught out pretty sharply by his host’s questions about British history. Who wrote “Rule Britannia”? What does “Magna Carta” mean? Mr Cameron didn’t know, floundering obviously.

“It would be good if you knew,” Mr Letterman told the sheepish PM, who took a minute or two to catch on and grasp that he’d been caught out by his host’s “dumb American” pose.

With idiots like Dave you can see that Nigel Farage’s party will be taking votes from the limp wristed “Conservative” party.

27 Sep 12 at 9:13 am

Indeed, anyone with a £1 million-plus home will be treated as if they are suspected of tax-dodging just because they own it.

Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence? Or the equally fundamental doctrine that it is wrong to trawl for offences without due cause for suspicion?

And in any event, the better-off already do pay more in tax than those on more limited incomes.

But for the Lib Dems, it appears that anyone whose assets are worth more than they think reasonable is to be treated as an enemy of the people.

Thus Nick Clegg told his party’s conference: ‘I want to reward people who put in a proper shift, not those who sit on a fortune. People for whom a bonus means a few extra quid at Christmas, not a million-pound windfall.’

So on preposterous Planet Clegg, working is good — as long as you don’t actually make any money, other than ‘a few extra quid at Christmas’.

All those who work hard enough to buy a house whose value goes up a lot are to be given no credit for industriousness or prudence, but to be treated as if they had won the Lottery — which justifies the State grabbing some of this ‘windfall’ for itself.

And note also Clegg’s implicit assumption that the only worthy form of work is to be employed. Those who do the employing, however, are to be punished for making money.

This is an attack not on wealth but on wealth creators. But when the rich are targeted in this way — as we can see from France, where President Hollande has imposed the kind of swingeing taxes on the rich that the Lib Dems doubtless dream of inflicting upon Britain — the tax-take actually goes down, and the wealthiest flee the country.

Indeed, at precisely the moment that Britain urgently needs more wealth to be created if it is to struggle out of recession, the Coalition has set up a unit whose sole purpose is to target affluence as if it were some kind of disease to be stamped out.

This is not just the politics of envy — it’s the politics of sheer asinine imbecility. It really is so utterly bonkers that it can only be explained as driven by the zeal of a fanatic.

There was a whiff of this from Danny Alexander when, trying to show he was not as wealthy as David Cameron or George Osborne, he declared: ‘I have a two-bedroom flat in London worth £300,000 to £400,000 and a home in Scotland worth a bit less.’

Ah yes: the knee-jerk sanctimoniousness of the ideologue who draws an artificial line in the moral sand — only £400,000! — and then damns everyone beyond it.

Such posturing is even more distasteful since the Chief Secretary himself avoided paying capital gains tax when his London property was designated his main home for tax purposes, even though he described it as his second home to maximise his expenses claims as an MP.

As we all know, the Lib Dems desperately want to impose a ‘mansion tax’ on all homes worth more than £2 million, a move blocked by David Cameron. Targeting the ‘affluent’ who own homes worth more than £1 million looks very much like a sneaky way of getting this ‘mansion tax’ by the back door.

So is the Prime Minister going to roll over and let this happen? What on earth are Tories for if not to protect the country from this kind of socialist wrecking ball?

This war on affluence is nothing less than a war on prosperity and on Britain’s whole economic future.

http://www.melaniephillips.com/mr-clegg-wages-war-on-britains-economic-future

Ivan Denisovich

27 Sep 12 at 9:27 am

Hmmm…wish the Lib Dems were the Liberals of old. Alas, the conservative and Lib Dem voters must vote for UKIP and the LPUK to reclaim freedom.

27 Sep 12 at 9:36 am

It’s difficult to see how the Poms are going to get themselves out of this problem. The Tories and Lib Dems are stuck in tax and spend thinking, and Labour is worse.

It could end up as a 25 year recession, largely self-inflicted.

DavidLeyonhjelm

27 Sep 12 at 9:48 am

What do you do when the electorate believes that government can dole out money like they are sourcing it from Lindsay’s magic pudding?

27 Sep 12 at 10:39 am

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