Blue socialist dreaming

And so it begins ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/12/27/levelling-deprived-regions-must-heart-boris-johnsons-strategy/amp/

Liam Halligan logs the whole money tree forest in one fell swoop.  Do you think he's running for parliament in the next election?

As follows: -

Levelling up, eh? ...

Average annual earnings are 30pc higher in London than the UK average, and 50pc above those in the North East. GDP per head in the UK’s 90th income percentile region is 2.25 times higher than the 10th percentile part of the country, compared with 1.7 times in the US and 1.6 in France. On this standard regional inequality measure, Britain is the most imbalanced developed nation on earth.

A half-baked argument that hides two inner inconvenient truths.

Firstly, America achieves comparatively low regional disparity by the purest of Thatcherite doctrines: Norman Tebbit's "On yer bike!" principle.  Look at the regional populations of the states ...

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_the_United_States_by_population

Many are simply empty if there's no productive base.  Americans don't expect handouts to stay put.  If there's no work they hitch up their trailer if they're working class or fly coast to coast if they're middle class, and go where the jobs are.  The best leveller-upper known to economics: mobility of labour.

Also, looking at the regional income disparity between US states, one wonders if Liam is telling porkies about America's imbalances being less than Blighty's? ...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_GDP_per_capita 

One heck of a spread.  New York second from the top at $85k per person, Arkie at fiftieth on $42k.  But do we see JK with his begging bowl out and shoved under the swamp's nose?  Liam doesn't publish his figures for claiming that Blighty is the "most imbalanced developed nation on earth", so we don't know.

But accepting Liam's claim that the US is less imbalanced than Blighty, he should be endorsing "On yer bike!" Thatcherite labour mobility to match the American solution he himself quotes!

Secondly, France.  Who wants to be like France, FFS!?  Well, only a died in the wool blue socialist would want the state at 60% of GDP, feeding off the deficit teat of German debt worthiness.  QED on Halligan and the Johnsonite Tory party's political colours.

I mean, did Blighty do Brexit to be more like France?  How extraordinary: Brexiteers voted to leave the EU states in order to become more like the EU states!

And remember, we aren't feeding off the deficit teat of German debt worthiness.  Our limit before the market turns on Blighty's debt is considerably lower than France in the Euro system.  Blighty's magic money forest is not augmented by Teutonic budget surpluses.

In Stuart Sweeney's book "The Europe illusion", he illuminates the contribution to faith in socialism that was made in the 1945-75 era by the Marshall plan.  Blighty took 25% of the cash, more than Germany and France!  The latter day magic money forest got a boost, fuelling expectation that the state was the infinite be-all-and-end-all of free consumption and investment.

But at least the Marshall Plan boost was real!  In exchange for handing over Blighty's empire, Uncle Sam gifted Blighty with a massive dollop of wonga - and unwittingly fueled faith in socialism in his "special relationship" pal.  Brexit Blighty has no equivalent to France's Teutonic underwriter or the Yank backhander of yesteryear.

But then Liam opines ...

But can this Johnson government afford it? ...

The Government borrowed £285bn between April and November, three times the previous nine-month record. With new restrictions set to remain in place until spring, after mass vaccination, borrowing could soar well over £400bn during the 2020/21 fiscal year. Since April, VAT receipts are 42pc down on the same period in 2019, while furloughing, benefits payments and business support grants mean spending is 39pc up.

UK government expenditure has risen more as a share of GDP than any other large European economy.

Well if Blighty can't afford the state spending splurge he just espoused, why go on about it?!  In fairness to Halligan a half decent socialist would simply have missed out the affordability to avoid the risk of appearing incoherent.  So Liam just goes straight for incoherence!

Then this ...

In tackling this policy conundrum, ministers should remember that how money is spent can be even more important than how much. 

Sweet Mother of God!  How is it possible that someone can still believe that politicians are some kind of Bill Gates, Alan Sugar, or Richard Branson: super-CEO's filtered up as winners through and through the operational Olympics of the independent sector to the medals podium?  The pols and their acolytes in the civil service, public sector, and welfare state haven't run so much as a ruddy whelkstall in the free market, let alone bestrode the podium!  Yet Liam thinks a quick word of reminder from him, "Do it right, alright", and all will be well.  F. F. S. !!!  No pol, ever in human history, has ever outperformed the operational Olympics of the independent market sector for the money.  They will never "Do it right, alright", otherwise we'd all be celebrating Venezuela, the former Soviet Union and Ost Bloc, or North Korea.  Somewhere there'd be some state whose pols had got on the podium with the super-CEO's, but there are none!

And then, bursting with re-envigorated "You don't wanna do it like that, you wanna do it like this" energy ...

 

 

... Liam decides he knows how to "back winners", and lays on thick his own "How to do it right, alright" ...

The Midlands and North, in particular, suffer from ghastly bus and train links. So, finally scrap – or at least put on ice – the vastly overpriced HS2 North-South super train and upgrade local commuter services into cities like Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle.

As working patterns change post-Covid, they’ll continue to be used far more than intercity routes.

Build better links between our big Northern cities – revamping the West-East trans-Pennine line, from Liverpool to Newcastle and Hull, creating a growth centre to rival London and the South East.

Widen Manchester’s “Castlefield corridor”, a mile-long train bottleneck that has blighted the Northern capital for decades. The vital Birmingham to Coventry corridor could be similarly eased, cheaply addressing capacity constraints that have long held back the UK’s second city.

And how about finally electrifying the rail network across the North and Midlands, much of which still relies on slow, infrequent diesel trains, many using rolling stock made from converted bus carriages?

The second thing is to more obviously align Brexit with levelling up. Outside the EU, the UK regains control over billions of pounds of “cohesion fund” spending, which can tackle regional inequalities. Free of Brussels’ state aid rules, government can back industries of the future, not least artificial intelligence and biotech.

Did Harry Enfield's character ever have such a real world instantiation as Liam and the army of blue socialists now upon us?

Then he begins the round off with a drop in tax, as if yet another magic money forest had sprouted from the earth ...

We need to hear much more about freeports and enterprise zones, low-tax jurisdictions bringing investment and prosperity to deprived areas – again, only possible outside the EU. And what about research and development tax credits and other post-Brexit regulatory tweaks, again with a regional focus?

Btw, if freeports are so great, why not make the whole of Blighty a freeport?  Why not do the full Singapore-on-Thames and get GDP per capita up to $65k across the board ...

Singapore GDP per capita

The finale being an "all things to all men" flourish of incoherence ...

Finally, ministers need to emphasise that genuine, sustainable growth is driven, above all, by the private sector.

Infrastructure projects, while seeded by central government, should be largely financed by commercial infrastructure bonds. High-speed broadband rollout is vital – and again, private sector players have a huge part to play. More housebuilding is vital too, not least social housing – once more, harnessing both private and public sector funding.

While levelling up costs money, the emphasis must be on tax breaks and vigorous supply-side reform.

And what if the private sector tells you to stick your blue socialist French model up your arse and does a runner, Liam?

What are you gonna do then?

Hand over to the Labour party and the true red socialists to finish the job, that's what you're gonna do, Liam.

Just like the 1970's, but it's ok, I won't say I've been telling you so since June 23rd 2016.

SoD

Comments

[Bob]

The US is more unequal than the UK. We have a Gini index of .39 while yours is .35 (explanation included here):

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/05/28/countries-with-the-widest-gaps-between-rich-and-poor/39510157/

Your national balance sheet is covered in red ink. So is ours:

"$3.1 trillion: 2020 budget deficit, the largest in dollar terms in U.S. history. Trump had pledged during the 2016 campaign to eliminate the gap between federal spending and revenue. Tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 contributed to the imbalance, and it ballooned further after Congress passed $2.4 trillion in economic relief earlier this year to help unemployed workers, business owners and others weather the financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic."

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-iran-nuclear-health-coronavirus-pandemic-coronavirus-vaccine-22e9cd885c1d4de1b9be68e13233a306

Trump also promised infrastructure improvements and so on, and failed to deliver for anyone but the rich. The global economy was probably inevitable, but it's been taken advantage of in some quarters more than others. The West's (Reagan's and Thatcher's) neoliberal project has failed in a big way and people will act accordingly. Whinge all you like.

[JK]

"But do we see JK with his begging bowl out and shoved under the swamp's nose?"

Waaay-ell Loz when you put it like that, no I reckon y'all will not.

But I can definitely see some incentive for Bob to go scavenging the archives.

However in my defence I'd protest in my maturity I've recognized the error of my ways.

[JK]

Bob,

Presidents don't do appropriations legislation, K-Street does. Presidents only get an opportunity to sign (or not) appropriations legislation.

If K-Street has no potholes why bother with infrastructure?

[Bob]

JK,

Referring to "the president" is just shorthand for "the administration". I don't give Trump personally much credit or blame for anything other than having the talent to manipulate the alternative media universe created over the past 40 years by right wing operatives. Our social and physical infrastructure is largely obsolete or deplorably underfunded.

[JK]

https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2020/12/we-had-covid-19-vaccine-just-under-year.html

Hmmm.

If true we recognize Washington DC's finest hour. Which, my spidey senses inform me is, very likely, 'true to form.'

[Loz]

The West's (Reagan's and Thatcher's) neoliberal project has failed in a big way

Quite literally the biggest historical porkie ever to be recorded on D&N! Congratulations Bob!

Billions of people from every corner of the globe have been raised out of poverty by globalisation. And that's true poverty I'm talking about: absolute poverty, not relative wealth.

Relative wealth is a redefinition of the true meaning of poverty, crafted by statists, collectivists and socialists, in order to dodge the fact that globalisation, that extra little tweak to capitalism, has eradicated more poverty than any other practical implementation in the history of mankind (apart from the original capitalism itself).

Whereas, statism, collectivisation and socialism has created more poverty than any other practical implementation known to mankind, including the systematic killing, much through poverty and starvation, of 120 million people in the 20th century alone.

By destroying socialism in the East, and West for that matter, and fusing the two worlds together, Ronnie and Maggie are on the podium as the two people who saved more from poverty than any other human being in the history of mankind thus far.

Yeah, that's some porkie you've got going there Bob. Knocks "carbon causes warming of the climate in spite of carbon happening after warming by 200-1200 years" into a cocked hat.

SoD

[Bob]

SoD,

There are millions of American ex factory workers, mostly in the Midwest, that would take issue with you. I personally think global trade is good, but that treaties like NAFTA and PTNC have caused a lot of problems that could have been avoided by compensating for the loss of American jobs in various ways. I'm not suggesting going to the illogical extreme opposite as you know, funny guy.

[Timbo]

Bob, instead of tying yourself in a pretzel, wouldn’t it be far simpler to just admit that President Trump’s “magic wand” was more beneficial to the American population than the globalistic view of outsourcing to the cheapest labor?

It’s probably a good idea not to deprive your potential customers of a livelihood. Hint: if they’re unemployed they won’t be able to buy the cheap Chinese garbage anyway.

[Bob]

Timbo,

If you mean the trade war "magic wand" it's only caused higher prices and smaller markets in both the US and China. Since most money flows to the top with our current tax structure, workers get hurt the worst.