The former Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has had his say on the economic policies of recent governments. In the context of gilt prices now reaching the same level as they did under Liz Truss, without any outcry, King said:
“Yeah I do think we got a bit hysterical… I don’t think the economic consequences were that bad and frankly they’ve gone away. They’ve disappeared now… and no-one got hurt”
At least Liz had a plan for growth…
Facing questions from Andrew Marr on LBC, King then said Rishi’s pledge to halve inflation whilst growing the economy “may not be compatible”. His criticisms went further, given that bringing down inflation should be the responsibility of the independent Bank of England, he said Rishi making the commitment was “probably not wise”. Doesn’t look like Rishi can bank on King’s support…
Mervyn King tells Laura Kuenssberg who is to blame…
‘If I were to blame anyone, I would blame the economics profession for encouraging (central banks) to print money (like) it didn’t matter.
Former Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King…
“There are arguments for remaining in the EU and there are arguments for leaving the EU. But there is no case whatever for giving up the benefits of remaining without obtaining the benefits of leaving.”
Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has launched a blistering attack on the Government’s “incompetent” approach to Brexit. Speaking to the BBC, he said that it “beggars belief” that the people tasked with preparing the country for Brexit had “brought us to a position where we’re now being told that we have to accept a certain course of action, otherwise it will be catastrophic”. He also slammed the Government for not having a “credible bargaining position” as a result of its failure to plan adequately for no deal as undermining the negotiations. Something Brexiteers have been saying since day one…
“We haven’t had a credible bargaining position, because we hadn’t put in place measures where we could say to our colleagues in Europe, ‘Look, we’d like a free-trade deal, we think that you would probably like one too, but if we can’t agree, don’t be under any misapprehension, we have put in place the measures that would enable us to leave without one.'”
Before more shameless Remainers try to follow David Lammy’s lead and twist his comments into pro-Remain propaganda, King already made clear in the interview that his comments were specifically about the Government’s preparations for Brexit, and not the merits of Brexit as a whole:
“It doesn’t tell us anything about whether the policy of staying in the EU is good or bad, it tells us everything about the incompetence of the preparation for it.”
King is an intellectual heavyweight who has long spoken about the potential benefits of Brexit. He is struggling to find any in the Government’s approach…
