Like, I hope, most people, I hate being lied to. The truth matters. Yet I accept that things are not always as they seem. However, there are some lies that need to be nailed, especially when decisions will shortly be made over who will form the next government. Now I know that popular opinion is that overspending by the last Labour government is to blame for the financial crisis of 2008; whereas I had understood it at the time to be a banking crisis. Now you could argue, as I might, that the, then, government should have regulated the banks more. Unfortunately for the major party of the coalition, as I understand it, at the time it was arguing for less regulation. So it was interesting to read in today’s paper that the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, Sir Nicholas Macpherson, has said that “The 2008 crisis was a banking crisis, pure and simple”. It is useful to have that on the record before people go out to vote on Thursday.
A second report in the same newspaper reviews the Conservative party’s mantra that the government’s long term economic plan is working with such rebuttals as:
The slowest recovery from recession in 100 years
A deficit that has been halved over the last five years when the plan was to eliminate it completely
House building is at its lowest since the 1920’s
Manufacturing and construction are operating below pre recession levels
Homelessness is up by one third
There has been the first fall in living standards, over a five year period, since modern records began in 1960
More than 900,000 people rely on food banks, a 15 fold increase since the last election
Now I realise that I am either preaching to the converted or to those who won’t be converted by these arguments anyway. What I would ask for, though, is that you vote on the basis of what has actually happened and not on the basis of propaganda. And that you apply that to all parties equally. If you then vote with your heart, as many do, you will at least have done so knowing that it is your heart and not that you have been persuaded by, shall we politely say, inaccuracies.
So, please go out and vote. Our future shouldn’t be decided by apathy.
absolutely