Douglas Carswell's Blog

Meanwhile, the economy ....

While folk in SW1 work themselves up into a fury over House of Lords reform, the economy tanks.

Growth is non existent.  Factor out the way government spending artificially distorts GDP upward, and the economy is probably shrinking.  Public debt is growing at over £100 Billion a year. 

So what do the SW1 folk do about it? 

When not wittering on about the primacy of the Commons versus an elected Senate, they plough on with the failed economic remedies that landed us in this mess.

Continued low interest rates, holding down the price of credit thereby guaranteeing its scarcity.  More print-and-pray QE from the Bank of England.  More muddled thinking about bank reform.  More fiscal stimulus in everything but name.

Zero supply side reform.  Little effort to achieve the public service productivity gains needed.  No concerted effort to remove the restrictions on wealth creation.

I no longer expect this administration to make the kind of bold, radical changes Britain desperately needs.  In case ministers do wake up and decide to do something that hasn't been handed to them as a memo from a mandarin, here are some ideas to reform the banks, which Matt Ridley has written up in today's Times.

If the Commons spent as much time debating economic reform as we do House of Lords reform, we might stand a chance of sorting out the economy. 

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