Alistair Darling finally faces the facts

Monday, 1st September 2008 16:24 - by Resident IFA

I try to write in a fair fashion and, having castigated our beloved Chancellor of the Exchequer a few blogs back, will now redress the balance ever-so-slightly. Alistair Darling is still deathly silent on the potential changes to Stamp Duty tax but, to be fair, has a bit more on his holistic economic ‘plate’ at the moment. At least he has admitted the UK’s current economic problems are likely to be more “profound and long-lasting” than initially thought. He also had some choice language to relate to the masses, understanding that voters are “pissed off” with Labour’s handling of the current economic crises. Looking to the future, he promised in a speech made on August 18th, that “we will also advertise the posts of the Governor (of the Bank of England), the Deputy Governors and also for external members of the MPC, consistent with the principles of open competition, to inject more openness and transparency to the process” (Source: hm-treasury.gov.uk). Isn’t this all ‘too little, too late’? The horse has well and truly bolted…a fact the Tories are enjoying immensely. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne saying “It's not clear whether Alistair Darling meant to tell us the truth about the mess 10 years of a Labour government has left our economy in, but he has certainly let the cat out of the bag.” I suppose we should be grateful that plans are being made to avoid a repetition of this terrible time. I, for one, am getting royally fed-up with seemingly incessant streams of ‘bad news’ stories on my computer and in my paper. It brings to mind the saying that ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’...let us hope that (economically) this holds water. Until next time…