Whose fault is the current economic climate
 

Labour keep chuntering about the hard times being due to the current economic climate.

Surely it was they and the banks that have shaped it into the time bomb that is about to go off.Why are they pretending it has just 'happened' and it is not their fault?

Can't accept blame for anything can they

It's not saoley a Labour fault it would be extremely arrogant to assume that the UK can affect the global economy.

There are a number of factors - The States obviously has had the sub-prime market blow up in its face, and that has affected us to a lesser extent. The weak dollar is affecting us, the rise in commodities prices is affecting us.

The one thing you could blame labour for is a flasely inflated house market, due to a decade of low inflation/low interest. When one or the other rises, then the effect is far more pronounced than it ordinarily would be.


Let;s not forget, though. According to the IMF we are far better positioned to cope with the worldwide slowdown than many other countries.

It's a worldwide thing - as was the previous growth and prosperity.

What annoys people (me included) is that if you're going to take the credit for the good times, you then must take the blame for the bad times. You can't pick and choose and hope the public are naive to believe it all.

Steve

Easy, if you are a Labour supporter it's a worldwide problem whereas if you want to blame them for everything from the weather to the cut on your leg the way most on here do it is obviously entirely their fault and the rest of the world is basking in hitherto unrivalled prosperity while we are languishing in abject poverty the likes of which has only been seen in third world famine ramaged African dictatorships :D

At the heart of the problem is the incredible stability we've had in terms of interest rates and inflation over the past decade.

Anything done to curb lending practices in the UK would arguably make UK lenders run at a disadvantage compared to their overseas rivals. Potentially making them takeover targets.

What I do think, it that given the writing has been on the wall about a credit implosion for the past couple of years, the gov't seemed so surprised when problems occurred. The Northern Rock debacle could have been dealt with rather more certainly and decisively.

I also blame the opposition for having been useless these past 5-10 years. If the Tories put the wind up Labour, they'd be more used to making proper decisions and backing them up, than spouting cr*p and doing "as little ill as possible".

J.