Rising unemployment and the recession have been the price that we have had to pay to get inflation down. That price is well worth paying. * Hansard, HC 6Ser vol 191 col 413 (16 May 1991)Those last five words have been something which Labour has bashed over the heads of many a Tory to illustrate how uncaring they were/are. In fact, just this past Saturday Polly Toynbee wrote that Cameron had done a U-turn and taken the Tories back to the view that "unemployment is a price worth paying". It's a good soundbite right?
However, times change fast in the mind of Polly. We know this because she praised Gordon as a saviour, then slagged him off a no-hoper, then praised him as a savior again in the space of months. The speed of her U-turns has reached new heights now because today she writes,
Even if unemployment reaches 3 million, that still leaves 90% in secure jobs. Most people will suffer not at all in this recession: on the contrary they will do well as prices fall and the real value of their earnings rises.Got that? All of sudden unemployment at 3 million is a price worth paying because those in jobs will have lots of cheap things to buy? Recession is good. Long live recession says Polly, and 3 million unemployed? That's a price worth paying says the stuck-up aristocrat who is in touch with the common people!?
Hat Tip: CoffeeHouse and Guido for link to today's Polly column quote.
9 comments:
Ridiculous quote out of context I'm afraid - she didn't say it was a price worth paying, that is probably a more a reflection of your thougts than hers. She was trying to use the statement as a basis for saying that the VAT cuts should have instead been more targeted and aimed at those who needed them - i.e the 10% not the 90%.
Yeah right, and the blase attitude toward 3 million being unemployed is just to be ignored. :rolleyes:
Have changed "says" to "thinks" in the title to keep you happy and hopefully illustrate the comparison for you in an easier way to udnerstand.
Polly said that 3 million under Thatcher was a 'social catastrophe', but now she just understates it in an argument about how the VAT won't help the economy because most people are ok.
Why is Polly not condemning the potential of 3 million unemployed under Labour the same way?
That's the point Dizzy is making or is losing your job less significant under a Labour Government than a Tory one.
Well I can tell you from experience it makes bugger all difference, it's still shit.
Given Nulabor's denial of 'realities', the accuracy of unemployment figures is open to question.
Maybe we need a volatility index for these fuckwits. Polly and Kaletsky would represent limiting values, while Bootle would define the resolution of the scale.
Strangely I found that Comment is not free over at the Grauniad, they didn't publish my comment. But then I did tell her to bugger off to Sweden.
WV: cungo - that blogger wv is becoming sentient
The thing is this 3 million are already unemployed, it's just that no-one has had the incentive to sack them yet as the tax money has kept rolling in.
The problem is that the wrong 3 million will lose their jobs under Labour. Labour will keep in work their State employee clients by paying with money taken from the likes of me, who as an employer will as a consequence be unable to employ the people I need to develop my business, so causing further wealth destruction.
Employment by the State is always at the expense of employment by private business.
I've just read Toynbees column - What. A. Complete. Prat.
To understand Polly Parrot's mentality, you should really read her book "Hard Work".
She believes that it's not worthwhile working in low-paid jobs as she didn't like it when she went "undercover".
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However, Polly will know what it is like to be unemployed when the Tories introduce an online public sector jobs site ( + reducing the size of the state) AND the Grauniad goes bust!!!
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