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Cable’s tuned in, but PM snubs new homes solution
IN the fine old tradition of English empiricism Gordon Brown is, effectively, circling around the economic crisis, treating it with a diet of piecemeal politics.
It took him ages to deal with Northern Rock, despite exhortations from the cleverest “chancellor” in the Commons, Lib-Dem Vince Cable.
Then he recapitalised the banks, handing out billions without statutory powers to force them to lend to small and medium-sized businesses.
Pundits press him to introduce tighter regulatory controls over the banks.
Few tell him to get down and dirty and pump up the economy by boosting investment in aspects of the economy that can encourage the growth of jobs.
Followers of the great economist Keynes urge him to do this.
But Brown, strait-jacketed by a fear of letting the genie out of the bottle – a fear that transfixed Blair – will not abandon the free-market ideology inherited from the Thatcher government of the 1980s.
Vince Cable stresses – and he is beautifully right – that the government should invest in social housing.
The collapse of the private housing market is for all to see. Brown’s dream of private developers providing three million homes within a few years is but a fantasy. It’s obvious that Brown should release a massive amount of cash for local authorities to launch a large-scale housing programme. Ring-fenced, this would boost the construction industry within months, creating a demand for building workers.
Confidence would quickly flow back into the paralysed industry.
If Camden Council were given such funds, a housing programme could be mapped out for the borough. Sites are difficult to find, but they do exist, albeit on a smaller scale than can be found elsewhere. Hope would be felt by the thousands on the waiting list. Pressure from an all-party approach should be put on Brown.
Only apathy and provincial in-fighting hold our representatives back.
Addicted to parking fines
THE Lib Dems came to power three years ago with a pledge to be more relaxed about fining motorists over parking offences. Clamping would be less vigorously pursued. Headlines were suitably made.
But reality soon surfaced. And at times the pledge appeared tattered. Was it a piece of populism after all?
Motorists felt they had been cheated. Politicians are all the same, they groaned – the very charge Lib Dems, in particular, would not wish to hear made against them. They have always promised to talk and act straight.
But it’s one thing to be critical in opposition – and another to run the show.
It’s hard to think kindly of the Lib Dems’ parking policy when we find Town Hall officials are now busy trying to shore up fines revenue (see page 7). This is down by £4m and councillors and their advisors are worried.
Either parking fines are part of a Town Hall money-making machine operated to offset falling income from Whitehall – or they are legitimate means to police traffic. The Lib-Dems and their Tory partners have to make up their minds.Which is it to be?
Sadly, the signs suggest the Town Hall is carrying on in the same old way.
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