Danny Alexander takes to the pages of the Independent to challenge the points made by Jeremy Browne in his critical interview in that paper yesterday.
He looks back at the recessions of the 80s with their mass unemployment and misery and highlights the differences in approach brought into government by the Liberal Democrats. This, he says, has brought about a quicker, fairer end to the economic downturn:
Liberalism is about individual freedom, fairness and opportunity. And freedom, fairness and opportunity cannot flourish without a strong economy.
Today, Britain has the strongest growth and fastest job creation of any advanced economy. Inflation is benign, business investment is rising and we have record numbers in work. By any measure, Britain is making strong progress and opportunity is increasing.
This recovery has not come about by accident. It has been hard earned by millions of people and businesses. But we needed the right economic climate for the recovery. That climate is the direct result of liberal values in the recovery plan – fairness and opportunity. Delivered in the Coalition by Liberal Democrat policies – a balanced approach to dealing with the deficit; raising the income tax personal allowance to make work more attractive; creating apprenticeships to give people the skills they need; and the priority we have given to boosting investment in regional and local businesses, innovation and infrastructure. This is not “splitting the difference” between the other parties. It’s doing things in a distinctly different way, the liberal way.
He looks back to Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont’s attitude from the 1990s and compares to the coalition’s record:
Many will remember the Conservative Chancellor Norman Lamont saying in 1991 that “rising unemployment and the recession have been the price that we have had to pay to get inflation down. That price is well worth paying”. It was a disgraceful thing to say, but it reflected that harsh and uncaring side of Conservatism that seems to shine through whenever the Conservatives are threatened, as they are now by the rise of Ukip.
Unemployment in the 1980s and 1990s recessions climbed into double figures and worse it stayed too high for far too long. In the 1990s, six years after the start of the recession, unemployment remained close to eight per cent, in the 1980s it was over 11 per cent. Compare that to now, six years after the start of the recession and unemployment is under six per cent.
He warned against the risks of majority government, Labour or Conservative and set out the case that the recovery was only safe with the Liberal Democrats.
Far from being in “No Man’s Land”, our party stands proud of its record of economic competence during these difficult years. And such has been the influence and importance of our flagship policies on the personal allowance and apprenticeships that we see our coalition partners routinely attempt to claim credit for them.
We are the only party with plans that will safe guard the recovery, finish the job of deficit reduction fairly, allow Britain to turn the corner in 2018 and to see opportunity increase for our citizens.
You can read the whole article here.
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13 Comments
I never thought I’d ever ever ever find myself publicly agreeing with Jeremy Browne. But today IS that ‘stopped clock’ moment.
I presume Danny thinks it is fair that his boss has introduced Pensioners Bonds paying twice the rate of interest to the one demographic that the Conservatives rely on to get back into power. It’s not a pre election bribe, it is about individual freedom, fairness and opportunity.
Have we just added a tank of oxygen to a pile of ashes that were about to die out by themselves.
We shall know when we read the Sundays.
Bill Le Breton
I think it might be considered unkind to describe Danny Alexander’s future in politics as a “pile of ashes”.
Cricket is not a popular sport in The Cairngorms.
Sorry to come back so quickly but just read an interesting series of tweets on the right hand side.
Jeremy Browne tweets: @libdemvoice I want us to be distinctive and passionately liberal but also proud and unashamed champions of our own government.
And I think he is right.
We needed distinction throughout the five years and differentiation especially in the earliest days. The mood music surrounding the early days including the Rose Garden tactic and the dream of soft Tories coming to our banner which shaped these tactics (“not even a cigarette paper between us”) were hugely damaging. Once the Ts had agreed to a 5 year fixed Parliament there was no need to worry about instability attaching itself to coalition government. We got that piece of mechanics right.
With a clear distinction over the last 4 and a half years about what was ours, what was theirs, what we had to forgo and the linkage of those with what we had succeeded in gaining would have been clear and enabled us to mount a strong campaign in the last 6 months based on (as Jeremy describes it) the record of ‘our Government’.
We needed a quick mechanics based Coalition Agreement including some easy wins for both parties in for Year 1 with Cable’s economics and not Osborne’s. And a more detailed Coalition 2 for the Year 2 ‘hammered out’ publicly to reinforce the differences and communicate the ownership and quid pro quos for the contents. With this happening each year prior to the publication of the fresh annual coalition agreement as a replacement for the Autumn Statement.
Then of course you fight your campaign on your record and on a promise of more.
But tell me – does anyone really know what was theirs and what was ours over the last 5 years? Were we for or against another reorganisation of the NHS? We we for or against the Bedroom Tax at the outset? Were we for or against an increase in Tuition Fees between 2010 and 2011? Did we or did we not believe in expansionary fiscal contraction?
So can we complain if our former supporters assume the worst of us?
We have done this for years in local government and in the national Parliament and Assembly of Scotland and Wales.
Jeremy Browne was an appalling minister and seems determined to damage the party. Some of his engagement with the media have been immensely unhelpful. He is an absolute liability.
The Browne/Alexander battle of words makes no difference at all to our election prospects. It is a purely internal matter that would bore the electorate to death. We need a different sort of prospectus and personality to be able to get the public to support us.
From the LibDem Website — “…Born in 1972, Danny Alexander spent his early years on Colonsay before his family moved to Glengarry and he went to Lochaber High School in Fort William.”
So at the end of the 1980’s Danny was just finishing off at Lochaber High School.
His recollections of detailed unemployment figures from the 1980’s and the exact words of Norman Lamont perhaps indicate some very interesting teenage years for Danny (maybe he read Hansard in bed each night like William Hague).
Was Danny Fort William’s 1980s version of that other child prodigy who now sits in The Cabinet with him?
With the death of Steve Strange we are all being treated to some 80s nostalgia. I assume that Danny never made it down to The Blitz in exotic make-up and New Romantic costumes?
@Simon:
“Jeremy Browne was an appalling minister and seems determined to damage the party.”
As opposed to Danny Alexander who is. . . . . ? 🙁
When voters talk about unfairness in the tax system – they are not referring to the personal income tax allowance being too low. When they talk about fairness in society, they don’t think an extra £400 a year cuts the mustard. (or rather £400 spread over the lifetime of a Parliament minus inflation)
Only someone so completely trapped in the Westminster Bubble could be so out of touch.
Read a chapter of any book by Jo Grimond, then read an article by Danny Alexander and weep :-(((((((
Tony, not leaping to defend Danny Alexander, just think Jeremy Browne was the very worst minister we ever had, esp at the Home Office. He has also fed some vile stories attacking the party, which have helped no one. He is not even willing to defend his seat. I don’t think he is fit to give lectures.
” Read a chapter of any book by Jo Grimond, then read an article by Danny Alexander and weep ”
I would recommend just reading Grimond and forget about the other guy.
@ Caractacus – “When voters talk about unfairness in the tax system – they are not referring to the personal income tax allowance being too low. When they talk about fairness in society, they don’t think an extra £400 a year cuts the mustard.”
You mean they think all deciles losing roughly one third of their income to the exchequer, when both taxation and benefits are taken into consideration, is somehow unfair?
Why ever not, exactly how much of other peoples money do they want, for what should be the primary purpose of providing public services?