Sunday, January 25, 2009
KEN CLARKE & NICK CLEGG
Andrew Marr's show today interviewed Ken Clarke & Nick Clegg in separate interviews.
Clarke said that he didn't think government should be picking winners in the economy to support. There is a lot of evidence that he is right & that government is less good at this than the market. He also talked of the need to decide "what sort of market economy" we should be aiming for when the recession is over - which is either very lukewarm support for a lot of market freedom or an unambiguous statement that free markets are the way to maximise success. To me it was the former but in the atmosphere of British politics it was closer to the latter.
Clegg then proved Clarke's point about picking winners by mentioning it & saying this was the point at which he, who has made tax cutting & free markets selling points for his "liberal" party, openly disagreed with Clarke. He said that the LudDims would insist on picking winners & that the winner would be renewable energy. This fits with Tavish Scott's speech I reported earlier. Ot does not fit with any claim to sanity. "Renewable energy" with the exception of hydro power is horribly expensive & unreliable & no developed economy can survive on it. It is a perfect example of politicians making economically insane decisions to please political interests.
Clegg was asked what values his party represented that should make people give him their vote & he replied:
"Fairness & a renewables revolution"
Taking "fairness" as being merely laying on with a trowel something nobody, in or out of politics has ever said they were against we are left with the only unique selling point of the LudDims is that their way out of recession would be to vastly increase the billions wasted on windmills & ensure the lights go out in a more massive way.
Clinically insane.
Clarke said that he didn't think government should be picking winners in the economy to support. There is a lot of evidence that he is right & that government is less good at this than the market. He also talked of the need to decide "what sort of market economy" we should be aiming for when the recession is over - which is either very lukewarm support for a lot of market freedom or an unambiguous statement that free markets are the way to maximise success. To me it was the former but in the atmosphere of British politics it was closer to the latter.
Clegg then proved Clarke's point about picking winners by mentioning it & saying this was the point at which he, who has made tax cutting & free markets selling points for his "liberal" party, openly disagreed with Clarke. He said that the LudDims would insist on picking winners & that the winner would be renewable energy. This fits with Tavish Scott's speech I reported earlier. Ot does not fit with any claim to sanity. "Renewable energy" with the exception of hydro power is horribly expensive & unreliable & no developed economy can survive on it. It is a perfect example of politicians making economically insane decisions to please political interests.
Clegg was asked what values his party represented that should make people give him their vote & he replied:
"Fairness & a renewables revolution"
Taking "fairness" as being merely laying on with a trowel something nobody, in or out of politics has ever said they were against we are left with the only unique selling point of the LudDims is that their way out of recession would be to vastly increase the billions wasted on windmills & ensure the lights go out in a more massive way.
Clinically insane.
