Carywn Jones today defends the British union by saying:
"Labour is a unionist party...The economic crisis spells out very clearly that any talk of independence is in tatters. The global economic crisis shows how we are better off in a strong Britain rather than independent like Iceland. Iceland has virtually gone bankrupt while Britain, under the leadership of Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, has been leading the world in developing progressive policies to address the financial crisis."
Yet Will Hutton in yesterday's Observer says:
"German criticisms about the structure of the British economy are telling. Between 2001 and 2008 New Labour allowed British banking assets to rise from twice GDP to more than four times GDP, a similar trajectory to Iceland, as the by-product of a wild credit and asset-price bubble. Meanwhile Gordon Brown lectured Germany for not following the British example, not embracing financial deregulation and the American business model."
Who was in charge of the British economy between 2001 and 2008? For the most part, Gordon Brown. Progressive? I can't decide which is more regressive; the development of the de-regulatory American model which got us into this crisis, or the way that he has failed working people by allowing unemployment to spiral whilst bailing out the bankers and bosses.
