Crawley Observer Column 8th October 2014

This week in my Crawley Observer column, I have written about our successful economy under the Coalition and then contrasted that with France, where Labour policies have been enacted over the last two years, with disastrous results for the French.
 

in 2012 Ed Miliband heralded French socialist economic policy 

"The passage of time has a habit of proving politicians to be either right or wrong. Nowhere do I feel this applies more than with economic policies. The political backdrop of the last few years has been the economy and the public finances. Not only did Labour give Britain the longest and deepest recession in 2008/09 out of the all the major industrialised nations, the Coalition government inherited the largest budget deficit percentage out of these nations.

Not everyone will find economics and public finance interesting but they are hugely importance. If good public services are to be sustained for the long term, it is vital that the deficit is removed and that we have the right conditions to grow the economy. This is happening. The UK now has the fastest growing economy out of the major industrialised nations and employment has grown to record levels with unemployment sharply falling.

We should never forget that not only did Labour get the country into a dire state in the first place, that they also cynically opposed all the measures to fix the economy and create an environment where work pays. It is very easy in opposition to oppose any one given saving as Labour always do, but there is a total lack of credibility to oppose every saving. Such blatant and cynical opportunism is not a trait of a party ready for government.

In July 2012, Labour leader Ed Miliband was bullishly singing the praises of the then new Socialist French President Francois Hollande, and he declared that “the political tide is turning against the economics of austerity”, after a meeting in Paris. Hollande had been elected on a false promise of “no more austerity” meaning that France had no intention of living within its mean.

The result has been disastrous for France with unemployment expected to rise to 10.3% by the end of this year and the economy has barely grown since. One only needs to look over the channel to see what a Labour government would be like. As ever, the passage of time proves that socialism never works."