Labour were to blame for economic incompetence

I refer to W Quinn's latest denial of Labour's incompetence in running the economy until they were kicked out in 2010.

Again Mr Quinn used unqualified quotes.

Let us consider some qualified comments.

Early December 2010, Douglas Alexander, a former leading front bencher and Shadow Works and Pensions Secretary, said Labour must accept that there was a “price to be paid” for its stewardship of the economy.

Alistair Darling has said “We were like rabbits caught in the headlights”.

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Labour’s Baroness Morgan said “I always thought Gordon (Brown) would be a disaster.”

Lord Myners said he had been frustrated by his ex-colleagues’ “flawed thinking” on the economy and “there is nothing progressive about a government that consistently spends more than it can raise in taxation, and certainly nothing progressive that endows generations to come with the liability incurred.”

The head of the FSA said Gordon Brown helped fuel Britain’s banking crisis by pressuring the City Regulator not to be “heavy handed and intrusive” with the banks and instead a “light touch” should be applied.

Mervin King declared that Gordon Brown’s regulation system “failed to prevent the accumulation of risks that finally produced the crises.”

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The Institute for Fiscal Studies commented at the time of the downturn “The Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) did not leave his successor as Chancellor with the fiscal room to cope with even a modest economic showdown, let alone the problems we currently face.”

The International Monetary Fund stated “The UK entered the downturn with a larger budget deficit than more than 100 other countries.”

None of these are based on tittle tattle as W Quinn has claimed before but are all attributed quotes from the horse’s mouth.

Peter O’Connor