Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by a less than expected 0.2% in December 2021 to equal its pre-coronavirus pandemic level (February 2020). The consensus of economists was that GDP would fall 0.6%. Overall the UK economy recovered by 7.5% in 2021. The slight fall in December can be attributed to output in consumer-facing services falling by 3.0% in the month, mainly driven by a 3.7% fall in retail trade in the face of Omicron.
Pat McFadden, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responding to this morning’s weak GDP figures is audacious:
“The reality is the way the Government runs our economy is trapping us in a high tax, low growth cycle. Despite government bluster, with their current plans our position is not expected to improve. The latest Bank of England forecast suggests that growth will slow to a crawl next year. That would be the slowest growth of any G7 economy. Rising taxes, rising prices, and a squeeze on wages and living standards sit squarely on the shoulders of the Conservatives.”
Even if the low-tax rhetoric of Labour lacks credibility, it highlights the strategic Tory mistake of putting up taxes on workers and destroying their unique selling point as the party of low taxes. Labour points out that the Bank of England is predicting anaemic GDP growth could be as low as 1.25% for next year. The Tories choosing the high tax, low growth path is an open goal for Labour…
As was predicted a mile off, Labour has begun using the Tories’ own budget to undermine the low-tax USP of the Tories. Shadow Treasury Minister Pat McFadden has, perceptively, laid into the government, pointing out the Tories will no longer be able to credibly claim “tax cuts always magically lead to more revenues”. They can’t even bring out their loved “tax bombshell” posters at the next election…
Despite saying after the budget that now was not the right time for tax rises, Annelise Dodds is gloating about Rishi’s corporation tax rise; “We welcome the Chancellor’s conversion to our point of view, but we can never get back the £95 billion lost to the Treasury over the last few years from this economically illiterate tax cut.”
Guido predicted in his podcast prior to the election that, economic arguments aside, the political consequences from a budget corporation tax rise would resonate for elections to come and would undermine the argument that lower taxes can bring in higher revenue.
Even George Osborne is being reluctantly critical:
“You are sending a message around the world that Britain is not a very enterprising place to do business”
Labour’s enjoying the ideological surrender that Rishi’s rejection of conservative principles embodies, McFadden was proclaiming the death of low tax Conservative principles last night “Thatchernomics and Osbornenomics, buried in full public view by Rishinomics. No more Laffer curves…”. We did try and warn Rishi…
I am shocked, chilled and appalled by what I’ve just seen on Panorama. Hearing the testimony of party members and former staff was harrowing. They are not “disaffected”, they have been incredibly brave. Very serious questions now have to be answered.
— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) July 10, 2019
Truly, truly awful watching @BBCPanorama tonight – to see the stress of former staff members who were trying to stand up to antisemitism but most of all to see the pain of Jewish members who our party has so badly let down
— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) July 10, 2019
I know some of the staffers on tonight’s Panorama. They joined the Labour Party, like me and most party members, because they hate racism as much as they hate poverty. A statement accusing them of having “political axes to grind” is deeply wrong and indefensible
— Lisa Nandy (@lisanandy) July 10, 2019
Tonight’s @BBCPanorama powerful and shocking. Huge bravery shown by the young people who spoke out. This goes to the soul of what Labour stands for. And it’s not just about processes – it’s about the world view that created the permissive environment for all this.
— Pat McFadden (@patmcfaddenmp) July 10, 2019
Terrible to see vile abuse suffered by our Jewish comrades & the agonies of staff trying to kick racists out of our party, undermined at every turn by Leader’s office. #BBCPanorama
— Mary Creagh (@MaryCreaghMP) July 10, 2019
Attacking those who are brave enough to call out antisemitism is pathetic. And trying to silence anybody who challenges Corbyn’s failure to tackle Jew-hate is truly reprehensible.
If you deny Labour has a problem then you are part of the problem.— Margaret Hodge (@margarethodge) July 10, 2019
After watching @BBCPanorama tonight, it’s hard not to conclude that Labour is being destroyed before our very eyes. We have been an anti-racist, internationalist, progressive party for a century. Corbyn & his clique are destroying our heritage, our reputation & our future 1/2
— Owen Smith (@OwenSmith_MP) July 10, 2019
Well I’m saying it even if no one else will. The buck stops with Jeremy Corbyn. I said at PLP a couple of months back that if we cannot deal with internal problems like this, we cannot ask the public to put us into Downing Street.
— Anna Turley MP (@annaturley) July 11, 2019
Is this the moment when Labour MPs finally stand up and do something about it? Or do they just go back to campaigning to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister anyway?
Who’s responsible for winding up Labour lefties to the point where they boo and hiss the BBC’s political editor? This video of John McDonnell from 2013 is worth a watch – he tells activists to take “direct action” to “target” journalists they don’t like. Even going as far as occupying newsrooms…
“I don’t think we should let the traditional media off the hook… Where there is a distorted report or an inaccurate report, or where there’s a non-report by the traditional media, we take direct action against it. Let me give you an example… the IWW union were running a campaign in London… The Guardian wouldn’t cover the story… so what the IWW workers did is they went over to the Guardian offices and occupied them and insisted that they meet the editor and insisted that some story was covered. The editor came down, very angry… but in the end they said ‘alright, we’ll start looking into the story again’… Those newspapers, those media sources that aren’t covering the stories, we’ve got to start targeting them and taking direct action against them…
[Another pressure group] weren’t getting any coverage of their demonstrations by the BBC, so a couple of weeks ago they went to the BBC headquarters and did a demonstration outside and threatened occupation, eventually getting involved in a dialogue with some of the journalists… Where the existing, traditional media are letting us down, we target them.”
Labour MPs Wes Streeting, Chuka Umunna and Pat McFadden have all criticised the Laura K haters. Remember, Corbyn told Vice News the BBC “are obsessed with trying to damage Labour”. That’s why he smirked when his fans hissed at their pol ed…
Sacked Shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden says Corbyn told him he was being fired “because of questions I asked about terrorism… following the Paris terrorist attacks”. This is the question McFadden asked:
“Can I ask the Prime Minister to reject the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the West do? Does he agree with me that such an approach risks infantilising the terrorists and treating them as children when the truth is they are adults entirely responsible for what they do. No one forces them to kill innocent people in Paris or Beirut and unless we are clear about that we will fail even to be able to understand the threat we face let alone confront it and ultimately overcome it.”
So, according to McFadden at least, he lost his job because he made a point of refusing to blame the Paris attacks on the West. Corbyn’s people say it was because he was disloyal, which to be fair is not mutually exclusive. The Stop the War takeover over the Labour Party is complete…
