The economy is in trouble

Written by Jenny Randerson and published in Cardiff Post on Thu 21st Aug 2008

I was talking to my researcher the other day about the economy. I was quite shocked when I realised that he had never experienced the horror of recession, being too young to remember the devastation of the early nineties. We have an entire generation of twenty-somethings who are fortunate not to have experienced the repossessions, mass unemployment and inflation of the last time a government made a hash of handling the economy.

I have been getting increasingly concerned about the dark economic clouds that are beginning to gather overhead. What we need in this situation is strong action by government, but sadly, Labour at both ends of the M4 are weak on the economy Gordon Brown blames the US slowdown, despite his ten years as chancellor, during which he built economic growth by encouraging excessive personal spending and personal debt. The temptation for the then chancellor to encourage retail growth led him to claim that he was encouraging people to 'spend, spend, spend' when what he really meant was 'borrow, borrow, borrow.'

You can't build an economy on credit, yet that is exactly what Gordon Brown did. Now we are reaping what the Labour Government have sown. With inflation hitting 5%, unemployment jumping and house prices stalling, things are looking increasingly worrying.

The generation I talked about earlier, who are now facing their first experience of recession, will be hit harder than we all were in the past. They are now facing hard times with massive debts hanging round their necks. Whether its £20 000 of student loans, or the credit cards that were so tempting at the time, this will cause immense pain if the recession closes in on us.

While this may be a depressing read, strong government action now would make the situation better. I hope they make the brave and strong decisions now as I don't want to see people going through a repeat of the depressing days of the early nineties. Whatever happens, Gordon Brown's only hope of achieving any sort of legacy from his time as chancellor, which he will clearly never achieve as Prime Minister is rapidly falling apart along with his party and his Premiership.

Don't forget, Jenny Willott MP and I hold a surgery every Friday at 99 Woodville Road, Cathays for everyone in Cardiff Central. The doors open at 3.30pm.

You can keep an eye on www.jennyranderson.com for news and views from the Assembly.