Ken Clarke's comments
 

As jst about the only Tory I trust I read Ken Clarke's comments today with great interest:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12438091

Anyone else think that reading between the lines he is saying the coalition has got it somewhat wrong on the economy? I trust Clarke's view way more than Osbourne's. Clarke has been there and done it.... Osbourne ... well hasn't!

I'm surprised Cameron hasn't told him to button his lip. I think most people know harder times are coming but they don't want their noses rubbed in it. dl

Well I for one am glad he hasn't. He isn't rubbing anyone's noeses in it. He is telling people what is really happening unlike the rest of his party that are trying to blame things like the snow on poor economic figures.

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What's that all about then? My firewall??

dl

No, that's a server permissions issue, not your client (firewall)!

I read it as a heads up to the general populace that if you think it's tough now, think again.

This country is in for a serious rebalancing of peoples expectations IMHO.
For 80% of us, the annual foreign holidays, the new car every 3 years, the latest gadgets and gizmo's, well it's coming to an end folks. It's the age of austerity and people will soon realise exactly what that means.

Overly pessimistic? Maybe, but time will tell.

Oh if if the ConDems have called it wrong, take what I wrote above and times it by 10. :eek:

I am forced to say that I am not impressed with his policies with regard to imprisonment or his love affair with the Eu.

Les

Yes Les, I don't necessarily agree with him, but I think he is pretty honest about things. I trust him more than most politicians.

he is basically repeating what I posted over a year ago

if you earn less that a 100k and rely on the state for anything from libraries to home help to free school meals/eyes test/dentistry to the police, receive income support use public transport council leisure facilities etc etc -- then you are in for a really really hard time in the next 5 to 10 years

and as i said -- hold tight it's going to be a bumpy ride

Ken Clarke isn't right about everything he is barking mad about Europe and letting criminal lose because it is cheaper to let them live at home and commit crime rather than locking them up is equally barking mad

If you read what he has written he says the current policy is correct but just is more open about how painful this will be.

He was a good chancellor and is probably the best placed person we have in Parliament to fill that office so i would take his support for the policy to be a good thing as Osbourne has no idea at all and must have been chosen because he must have slipped some one a bung, certainly not on ability

Thing is thogh I don't think he is 100% supporting it. Why else would he go against the cabninet's 'let's pretend everything is rosy' message? If he wholeheartedly supported it he would not wnat to stir up trouble for the government.

As you say he was a great chancellor and can probably see where they are going wrong. Short of saying it out loud he has chosen to make some peripheral noise.

I've always liked Ken, but you have to remember that he was a good player in the Thatcher goverenment.

Now I don't have a problem with that, but I reckon a few SN anti-Thatcher regulars should take that into consideration. ;)


I'd like to think he's been there, done that, got the T-shirt. At his age he has nothing further to gain from his political career, unlike the following:


Well go on you snivelling putz....come up with a valid economical solution then! :razz:

This thread is about Ken Clarke, not Ed Mlliband, can you please keep it on topic or else I will have to complain to a moderator ;)

I know Clarke was part of the Thatcher government, but even the worst governments have to have some good people in them :D

I live in Ken's constituent. (constituency?)

Always liked him (apart from the EU bit) and he tells it straight - no fannying around.
An approachable chap often seen out and about doing his shopping in the local Sainsburys.

His straight talking, unfortunately, will never now see him lead the Tories as the powers that be run scared of him.
No doubt he'll get a rap on the knuckles for telling the truth..

I think on the economy that he's simply telling it like it is and, if you have half a brain, could have seen this coming at least from the time of the "financial crisis". Which is why I said before the GE last year that it'd be better for Labour to get in again because if you're the government when the sh!t hits the fan you're the ones that get blamed, even though most of the blame for the UK's problems can be laid at Labour's door.

Dave

It wouldn't matter who got in as they are both parties full of short term career politicians.

Labour would have done things differently but the result would have probably been the same. The problem the Tories have is they have done too much too soon and are going to have to do some U turns to get the economy moving again. You cannot cut away at a shrinking economy.

Finally can we stop this blaming Labour almost solely for the country's problems. They didn't help matters, not by a long chalk and are partly responsible for sure, but a WORLD recession hit us and other countires are actually a lot worse off than us or did the UK government suddenly become rulers of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain etc. and therefore it really is all Brown's fault.

You can blame it all on Brown if it makes you feel better, but as is being proved things are not going to get better even in the mid term just because Scoobynet's idols, the Tories are in power. In fact if they don't realise the mistakes they are making they are actually going to make things a lot worse than even the Labour party could have managed.

LOL :lol1:

Blame the BBC: Ed's counter statement was in the video clip of that link.

Sat next to Ken Clarke on a BA flight back from the Monaco GP when he was chairman of BAT. He was very amiable and we talked for ages about BAR and F1 in general , a subject on which he was very knowledgable.

He was sat with us in cattle class whilst Brundle, Bludell etc from ITV were up front in first.

Chip

This is all going to get really painful indeed.Think they all know that

Flipping nightmare on the work front as it is.Both at work,customers,clients,customers of clients,friends who i thought were doing well but say how much they are feeling it.And this is the flipping beginning!

Remember my old bosses reminiscing about the the three day week.Can't get the glass half full feeling about the country at the moment.Completely the opposite

And the 'feeling' is the problem as that is confidence and without confidence the economy grinds to a halt. As I said they have done too much too soon and will need to do some temporary U-turns when the first quarter 2011 figures effectively show us back in recession and they have no snow to blame it on.

Yes I would not argue with you about that.

Les :)

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on how culpable on their own the Labour government was!


Though I obviously agree on this bit. Actually, today's Dilbert sums up the current political obsession very well. .... http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-02-13/ .... just substitute government for the pointy haired boss and it all becomes very obvious .... :thumb:

Dave

Dilbert is great:D

Wel we can do, but how do you explain the economies of Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Grece etc. all being worse than the UK and in some ways the USA too?

How can it be more or less completely Labour's fault if much of the Western world is either worse off than us or at least seen a significant recession and economic problems? Yes I know the way our economy was handled in the 2000s left us not as able to weather the storm as well as some countries and that is Labour's fault of course, but the downturn itself .. come on now!

The trouble with demonsing any party in politics is you end up wanting to believe they are solely responsible for every problem. It is also tempting to blame one party in order you can convince yourself a change of government will bring about an end to the problems. As you are seeing with the ConDems that is not tha case and arguably they are making matters worse.

You also need to factor into the equation that one reason why we are so worse off is our economy is heavily reliant on the financial sector and associated service industries so was always going to suffer more in a global recession.

Now you may well ask why our economy is set up like that? Well I think you need to ask a certain Margaret Thatcher if you want an answer to that!!!!

I have to say that as time goes by these days, the term politician seems to be an excuse in most cases to tell as little of the truth as possible!

Yes we do have some individuals who can be trusted but in general, and right from the top of government in general on all sides, honesty seems to be a lost cause.

Les