Mastodawn

@ChrisMayLA6 Remember constantly being reminded through the eighties that our balance of trade was too dependent on services :) Plus ca change!

Neil Scott Aug 14, 2023

@jockox3 @ChrisMayLA6
As much as I detested Thatcher, and didn't agree with it, she at least had a plan. The current Tories appear clueless, feckless and careless about anything other than their own personal gain.

@Sc0tty @ChrisMayLA6 Sure, but then if you read, for instance, Eddie George's evidence about the monetary policy committee under him and Gordon Brown it seems evident that "financial engineering" rather than the "real economy" was the core of New Labour's plans too.

@jockox3 @Sc0tty

yes, I think that's right - new Labour was in thrall to the City too...

@ChrisMayLA6 @Sc0tty There does seem to be a trope where they wold never have won even in 1997 had it not been for Mo Mowlem getting the approval of the city. And that terrified them in c 2000/01 trying to do anything to avoid recession in dot com.

Neil Scott Aug 14, 2023

@jockox3 @ChrisMayLA6
Think they all thought the city would keep on laying golden eggs, until it didn't (choose your own metaphor for what came next!)

@Sc0tty @ChrisMayLA6 And all the stuff about "end of boom and bust" and "longest period of uninterrupted growth in history" and so on were "financially" engineered rather than anything about the fundamentals of the real economy.

@Sc0tty @jockox3

Yes, its extraordinary isn't it; indeed sometimes I thought she had diagnosed the problem(s) quite well, but then drawn conclusions that seemed nonsensical (or driven by prejudice or skewed advice)... which this lot have merely emphasised.

[just to be clear, I'd still have preferred a couple try where Thatcher got no where near the levers of power!]

Neil Scott Aug 14, 2023

@ChrisMayLA6 @jockox3

Well she was as much an idealogue as anyone, despite her protestations otherwise. Plenty of businesses that should have been supported were thrown away.

@Sc0tty @jockox3

yes, this what was so odd about her; on one hand an ability (not always present) to see clearly what the problem was, but then a tendency to act on the basis of ideology not evidence (which is where she parted company from her scientist peers, I guess)

Mark Burton Aug 14, 2023

@ChrisMayLA6 I suppose one thing Brexit has done is remove the veil under which the dependence of the UK on the import of commodified goods was hidden due to the receipts from the FIRE and other services sector in the city and SE.
Now we see the vulnerability of the country to eco-geopolitical shocks in its full horror.

Epistatacadam Aug 14, 2023

@ChrisMayLA6 my personal take taken from my late then father-in-law, when he was young he gambled on horses, later on he played Black-Jack on the stack market, etc.
But he never relied on that to feed himself or his family. Perhaps, they really is a lesson from household budgeting for the Treasury to allow to.
UK 'pays' it's way as another source said "by taking in your neighbours washing."
Always discretionary and dependent on others to survive.

@epistatacadam

Though of course, the very idea of the UK's economy as a 'household' is at the root of many of our problems.... see @sjwrenlewis series of posts on this matter over the last few years

Epistatacadam Aug 14, 2023

@ChrisMayLA6 @sjwrenlewis I wasn't really suggesting there was a good analogy between currency issuing States and households, but rather of you were to foolishly adopt such a view, then to seriously suggest you rely on other folks needing one to do their washing is doomed....