tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post482877521452870881..comments2024-03-05T10:52:24.691+00:00Comments on Mark Wadsworth: Lord Lamont ... er ... rocksMark Wadsworthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-79172438717184704732008-12-16T11:47:00.000+00:002008-12-16T11:47:00.000+00:00In re Lamont and the ERM the Tories were bounced i...In re Lamont and the ERM the Tories were bounced into joining by Labour/Libdums. The Tories lacked the confidence and political skills and enough sound people to make the argument against and in fairness their own pro-Europe faction wanted them to join. Thatcher didn't.<BR/><BR/>To make a successful single currency you need to be a 'country', not an alliance. The EU is not, yet, a country, although that is clearly what its apparatchiks want. To make a comparison between the US and Europe, Californians will happily bail out - for example - the Illinoisians, but the Germans will not bail out Italy (which is weird really "as they are countries that I still think of as the Axis"). And this is being demonstrated right now in the tanking of Italian sovereign debt and Germany's hard hearted attitude. Italy cannot devalue its currency to help itself.<BR/><BR/>It is irrelevant what Lamont did in the past if he is right now, which he is, and Hutton is wrong.<BR/><BR/>And another thing, in my view we want more currencies, not less. The monopoly of money by the state is dangerous as the state always ends up cheating us of our savings by inflating away its debts. Essentially it counterfiets on a grand scale. Socialists are the best at this because private capital is an anathema to their whole philosophy, as has been richly demonstrated since 1997. Let the commercial banks issue their own money and prove Gresham's Law that bad money drives out good - if it is at the same price.Lolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-11945274441536486692008-12-16T11:12:00.000+00:002008-12-16T11:12:00.000+00:00Hutton is useless, but clever. He belongs to the ...Hutton is useless, but clever. He belongs to the hand wringing Guardianistas. He's part of the same 'third way' bollocks of New labour and only makes a living because he's paid by his mates with our money.Lolahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-75413875970421380832008-12-16T10:20:00.000+00:002008-12-16T10:20:00.000+00:00So basically Will Hutton, like many other Labour s...So basically Will Hutton, like many other Labour supporters, is doing a pointless job at a pointless quango wasting millions of pounds a year doing research that other independent institutions do all the time.<BR/><BR/>Marvellous.Letters From A Toryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14612766550608940053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-57619030728493416712008-12-16T10:08:00.000+00:002008-12-16T10:08:00.000+00:00"When we joined the ERM that was on the back of La..."When we joined the ERM that was on the back of Labour/Lib Dem support as much as anything."<BR/><BR/>Indeed. The Labour Party and the BBC have spun the line of Lamont being a disaster, yet the Kinnock government were advocating joining the ERM and would have been fighting the same problem, having 15% inflation etc. that Lamont did. Of course, the beeb would have just blamed Soros and reckless investors if Labour had done it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-18892609999076367102008-12-16T00:26:00.000+00:002008-12-16T00:26:00.000+00:00PR, one of Enoch Powell's many erudite observation...PR, one of Enoch Powell's many erudite observations was that <A HREF="http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=%22enoch+powell%22+%22all+political+lives+end+in+failure%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8" REL="nofollow">All Political Lives End In Failure</A>. Ergo, anybody embarking on such a career ought to consider the serious possibility that his or her career may end that way, and also rather sooner and not in the circumstances they expected, even if they weren't actually to blame and did a relatively good job under the circumstances.<BR/><BR/>NH, <BR/><BR/>1 He would say that, wouldn't her?<BR/><BR/>2 Fair do's.<BR/><BR/>3 Are the voters really that thick? (don't answer that)<BR/><BR/>4 Maybe so. Just wait until they leave again, then we'll see. To be fair, UK inflation post-ERM ejection was lower than before.<BR/><BR/>As to your final para, if I had £5m a year and a government propaganda machine to back me up, most of my 'predictions' would be written as if I'd been right all along (WH is big on buy-to-let, isn't he? ouch). <BR/><BR/>When we joined the ERM that was on the back of Labour/Lib Dem support as much as anything. On tonight's showing, Lord L has retained a certain dignity. Unlike certain taxpayer funded quangistos with a large buy-to-let porfolio ...<BR/><BR/><BR/>BTW, if you are a currency guru, give me a few tips as to what currencies you have invested your hard-earned money in and then we can tot up gains and losses over the next year or so.Mark Wadsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-40253335887456334252008-12-15T23:18:00.000+00:002008-12-15T23:18:00.000+00:001. Current EU Commission President Jose Barroso se...1. Current EU Commission President Jose Barroso seems quite keen on us joining. Besides the 'stability and growth pact' exempts countries from the 3% annual stricture when a recession causes a 2% drop in GDP or more. Also the UK's total debt at 43% of GDP is a lot lower than most Eurozone countries.<BR/><BR/>2. They probably wouldn't - but it is a good rate to negotiate from - if the rate was too strong it would do far more harm -as our ill fated attempt to stay in the ERM proved - deflation can be worse than inflation.<BR/><BR/>3. It is a numerical quirk but a good psychological one to persuade voters.<BR/><BR/>4. Italy has always had inflation - today it is lower than their pre-euro days. <BR/><BR/>Finally Will Hutton tends to get his predictions right - you have to re-write history to make Lamont right about anything - yeah, like he deliberately got us chucked out of the ERM. The whole thing was a mess - we had a long boom after a big trough of a recession- there is no surprise in that and certainly no credit for that tosser to take.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1141932539860553199.post-87262824928350118102008-12-15T23:16:00.000+00:002008-12-15T23:16:00.000+00:00I'd love to see you explain your list of political...I'd love to see you explain your list of political heroes.Peter Risdonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17792275403997179926noreply@blogger.com