Published: Wednesday, 5th November, 2008 09:00
Martin Salter's Westminster Diary
By Reading West MP Martin Salter
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Martin Salter MP.
THERE is no doubt that the global financial crises put the judgment of our politicians to the test and put the spotlight onto their policies and competence.
Even the most grudging of political commentators have acknowledged that Gordon Brown has risen to the occasion and provided both strong and decisive leadership to stabilize the world’s financial systems which many other countries are now following.
This prompted the Nobel Prize winner for economics, Paul Krugmann, to write in the New York Times, “Gordon Brown’s combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn’t been matched by any other Western government, least of all our own”.
Across the world, from George Bush in the USA, to David Cameron in Britain, the credit crunch saw conventional conservative economic policies unravel.
Their belief that the markets can do no wrong, that greed is good and regulation is bad was exposed forever as dangerous nonsense.
It is also clear that David Cameron and George Osborne do not have the judgement or the experience to take the country through these difficult times.
Rather than nationalise the banks, they thought it was better to let Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley go broke, with disastrous consequences for savers and the wider economy.
They opposed action on 'short-selling’ shares and voted against laws to safeguard savings.
And at a time when families are seeing their food and fuel bills going up, David Cameron has set the Conservative Party against increasing tax credits and the Winter Fuel Allowance.
In America a hard line conservative administration has just been thrown out of office and the Democrats, Labour’s sister party, will be back in the White House.
I have no doubt that Gordon Brown and Barack Obama will forge a formidable alliance to meet the challenges of these difficult economic times.
On Thursday I will be taking part in the Credit Crunch Roundtable meeting organised at my request by Reading Borough Council to look at the situation locally and see how best people can be helped through the current difficulties.
As well as looking at how our local advice agencies are placed to cope with an increase in demand for their services, I shall be outlining the measures the Government has already taken including help with reducing energy bills, helping people stay in their homes with equity loans through housing associations and delaying repossession proceedings, a freeze on stamp duty for properties under £175,000 and bringing forward a number of large scale public projects to create employment and boost the economy.
For detailed information on these schemes please feel free to contact my constituency office or email me at salterm@parliament.uk
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