Letters to the Editor,
The Guardian. 24th
September 2014
Dear Sir,
I cannot understand why a newspaper that claims to be on the left does the Tories' work for them. You allow Larry Elliott to repeat George Osborne's gibe: "Why hand the car keys back to those who drove it into the ditch in the first place?" (A speech aimed away from its audience, 23 September) and John Grace to write: "Not the media Ed [Balls] who . . .helped run the economy into the ditch, ( Sensitive Ed goes looking for love,23 September) without the slightest hint that both these statements are gross distortions if not downright lies generated by the Tory PR machine.
The truth is that it was the irresponsible behaviour of the banks and financial sectors, deregulated by the Tories, which "drove the economy into the ditch"; that Gordon Brown's prompt action through the G8 in 2008/9 did save, if not the world, then the developed countries' banking systems; and that as a result of Alistair Darling's mildly Keynesian final budgets, which Balls may or may not have influenced, the economy was growing and the deficit reducing.
These are the facts which Elliott well knows and if Grace doesn't then Elliott should tell him.
Instead you help to perpetuate Tory propaganda. This drip drip drip of distortion has managed to put the Labour leadership so much on the back foot that for the sake of "credibility" (credibility for whom?) they dare not campaign for the policies which were working before they left office and would work again.
Five more years of misguided and unnecessary austerity will not, I suspect, do much serious damage to the quality of life of most Guardian readers. But it will cause unnecessary further suffering to the bottom 20% of our fellow citizens who are not benefiting much from the present alleged recovery and need the help of the state.
Please, for their sake, leave unvarnished Tory distortions to your predominantly right wing fellows, and give us more of the balanced truth.
Yours faithfully,
Dear Sir,
I cannot understand why a newspaper that claims to be on the left does the Tories' work for them. You allow Larry Elliott to repeat George Osborne's gibe: "Why hand the car keys back to those who drove it into the ditch in the first place?" (A speech aimed away from its audience, 23 September) and John Grace to write: "Not the media Ed [Balls] who . . .helped run the economy into the ditch, ( Sensitive Ed goes looking for love,23 September) without the slightest hint that both these statements are gross distortions if not downright lies generated by the Tory PR machine.
The truth is that it was the irresponsible behaviour of the banks and financial sectors, deregulated by the Tories, which "drove the economy into the ditch"; that Gordon Brown's prompt action through the G8 in 2008/9 did save, if not the world, then the developed countries' banking systems; and that as a result of Alistair Darling's mildly Keynesian final budgets, which Balls may or may not have influenced, the economy was growing and the deficit reducing.
These are the facts which Elliott well knows and if Grace doesn't then Elliott should tell him.
Instead you help to perpetuate Tory propaganda. This drip drip drip of distortion has managed to put the Labour leadership so much on the back foot that for the sake of "credibility" (credibility for whom?) they dare not campaign for the policies which were working before they left office and would work again.
Five more years of misguided and unnecessary austerity will not, I suspect, do much serious damage to the quality of life of most Guardian readers. But it will cause unnecessary further suffering to the bottom 20% of our fellow citizens who are not benefiting much from the present alleged recovery and need the help of the state.
Please, for their sake, leave unvarnished Tory distortions to your predominantly right wing fellows, and give us more of the balanced truth.
Yours faithfully,
Peter Wrigley .
In has excellent blog Mainly Macro, and particularly in yesterday's post, Professor Wren-Lewis of Oxford University uses the term mediamacro: maybe he even coined it. I take it he means the almost universal acceptance by the media that balancing the budget in the near future is essential and that cutting public expenditure and the consequent austerity is a necessary and inevitable part of achieving that aim. In other words, to ignore the lessons of the 30s, the analysis of Keynes, and the current experiences of other countries.
I find it deeply saddening that the Guardian, with its great liberal traditions, has, like the supine Labour Party, given up the fight and succumbed to this ideologically inspired Tory propaganda.
How much longer are the Tories allowed to get away with their knee jerk response to all criticism - don't blame us but remember the economic chaos we inherited. This is blatant nonsense but never denied by the so-called political experts who oversee the propaganda in the media.
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