Liberal Democrats MPs really will say anything to get elected.
Liberal Democrats MPs really will say anything to get elected
With the General Election looming, many Liberal Democrat MPs are understandably trying to distance themselves from the toxic coalition in the hope that it may help them hold on to their parliamentary seat next May.
In fact, it looks like some may be willing to say anything to disassociate themselves from Cameron and Osborne, including flatly contradicting things they’ve said in the very recent past.
Cue David Laws, Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil and former deputy to chancellor George Osborne.
According to David Laws, speaking today, the chancellor’s spending plans are a ‘political suicide note’. As Laws put it:
“This will be seen to be a very extreme and very right-wing suicide note because all those people who care about the education service, about the police, about the armed forces … will see that the plans they have put forward are hugely damaging and dangerous.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Yet this flatly contradicts words which came out of the mouth of the very same David Laws a mere two years ago.
In a 2012 interview with the Telegraph, Laws boldly outflanked the Tories on the right by arguing that the share of the economy accounted for by the public sector ought to be cut back to 35 per cent.
Public sector spending has hovered at around 40 per cent for decades, but jumped to 49 per cent in 2010-11 on the back of a rise in welfare outgoings triggered by the global financial crisis.
But for Laws, speaking in 2012, this was unacceptable; he wanted further swingeing cuts more drastic even than those planned by George Osborne. As Laws mused:
“The implication of the state spending 40 per cent of national income is that there is likely to be too much resource misallocation and too much waste and inefficiency.”
So why the sudden change of heart?
We would certainly never dream of suggesting that Liberal Democrats MPs will say anything to get elected.
James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
42 Responses to “2012: MORE CUTS. 2014: FEWER CUTS. Will the real David Laws please stand up?”
robertcp
I agree but a Lib Dem MP will always be better than a Tory MP.
JoeDM
Whoever wins in May will not be able to increase Government spending due to the deficit and the need to manage the debt without paying extortionate interest.
This is just electioneering bullsh!t.
Leon Wolfeson
Keep denying our fiat currency, as you demand the economy and wages keep shrinking.
Meanwhile, Britain is looking down the barrel of deflation, inflation of course being the relevant measure. You don’t care as long as you get your pound of flesh, of course.
littleoddsandpieces
The Lib Dems can say anything they like, they will not get the 28 MPs predicted in 2015 general election, showed by not even getting 400 votes in the last by-election.
Welfare reform has cost massive extra billions in benefits admin which is rising, whilst the money going to the poor continues to decrease by the millions and billions and is causing starvation equally to pregnant women, young mothers with new baby and 60 years of age and above even if disabled, by the 1 million benefit sanctions and other lost benefits.
Only 3 per cent of the benefits bill goes on unemployment, and a good portion of that is paid by the ring fenced and full National Insurance Fund, that has not needed a top up from tax for decades.
The non-paid out state pension since 2013 has denied
vital food and fuel money to the half of over 60s within the working poor,
which is money to top up stagnant wages at levels a decade into the past and
whilst the poor have suffered anything up to
near 70 per cent more inflation in fuel and food prices than any other income level.
This when the portion of the NI Fund ring fenced for the state pension is being
wrongly called a surplus since 2013,
and the flat rate pension being more about
denying the poorest men and women ANY STATE PENSION FOR LIFE and
the bulk of the rest LESS NOT MORE state pension,
whilst millions will remain on lowest wages or lose jobs under the doubling now of austerity job cuts and so on average works pension not even 4 per cent lowest income.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
This was all made possible by the Lib Dems joining a Coalition with the Tories in 2010, instead of Labour, who also made possible pension, welfare and tax reforms that have caused what even the newspaper of the rich, The Times, calls entirely preventable impoverishment.
Leon Wolfeson
Good joke!