However grim this financial crisis may look, I really don't see any logical reason to believe that it suddenly vindicates the sort of flat-earth pseudo-economics most numerate people of all parties ditched years ago.
Many pundits disagree, though - Ken Livingstone is one. Fresh from graciously attributing his May defeat to racist voters ('racist' apparently encompassing everyone who reads the Daily Mail or votes UKIP), he has produced a new seven point plan for Britain's economy. No, don't laugh - it has now been published, presumably after careful peer review, in that prestigious and weighty economic journal Socialist Economic Bulletin ("A Bulletin of Socialist Economic Analysis published by Ken Livingstone").
It is worth noting in passing that Livingstone is no mere economist - he is also a historian and international relations scholar. He predicts in the same piece: "The US role as world’s sole economic superpower has ended. The US has become one very large power in the world among others such as European Union, China and India." Hmm.
Anyway, to the plan:
- Nationalise some of the banks without compensation to shareholders
- Relax lending to allow for easy credit (what could go wrong?)
- The government should borrow, borrow, borrow, spend, spend, spend
- A hike in income tax for those earning more than £150,000 a year (an odd cut off point, I thought - why is Ken so sympathetic to those earning a mere £125k or a trifling £140k? So I called the Mayor's Office to find out how much he was earning until May. Apparently the Mayor takes home £137,579 a year. Hmm.)
- A windfall tax on energy companies
- Scrap trident, scrap the new aircraft carriers, withdraw from Iraq
- Tax 'gas guzzling' cars much more - in London and nationwide
What do you think? Are these the answers to Britain's economic woes?
UPDATE: Livingstone responds to one of the claims of this post, pointing out (correctly) that he only advocated nationalisation without compensation for banks that lose all their value (hence my 'some').
