Who does this old prat think he's kidding?

[Hopeless Romantic]

Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, has warned his party that the Conservatives are on course to inherit a worse economic outlook than any incoming Tory government since the war.

In a hard-hitting speech to delegates in Manchester, he described the economy as a “mess,” with the public finances in a “far worse” state than those left by any previous Labour government, including that which gave way to Margaret Thatcher in 1979.

He said: “It is the realist in me that says we are set to take over the biggest mess that a Conservative Party has ever inherited from a Labour government.

“It is amazingly true that Labour always winds up leaving behind an economic disaster. It has happened every time since the war.

"But this is far, far worse. It’s worse even than Margaret was confronted with in 1979. So yet again it is our duty to repair the damage after those years of recklessness, and prepare the UK for a better future.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/6266331/Ken-Clarke-David-Cameron-will-inherit-worse-economic-mess-than-Thatcher.html

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. Ha!

Attlee's government inherited a bombed-out, bankrupt country and did the best they could.

Wilson inherited an economy that was overheating and nosediving in 1964.

Wilson inherited a troubled economy in 1974 from Heath that was in far worse shape than he'd left it in 1970.

While Callaghan's IMF-demanded fiscal policies were a disaster, Thatcher extended them and made the situation far worse.

Not that I'm saying that Labour's economic policies are great (because they have made many balls-up), but Ken Clarke's Whig history of Tory economics is laughable.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Unfortunately the answer to that...

is that he might be kidding lots of younger people who are in an anti-incumbent mood, and don't really remember the last Tory government and the mess that it left.

[Nihil]

3. Sauce for the goose ...

Considering the con-job that Blair pulled on the country thanks to
his image-makers, it's only fair. At least this time it took a lot
shorter time for people to wake up than it did when Thatcher walked
in with her "change" ... still can't believe that she hung on so long ...

There again, because there isn't the same "lost generation of voters"
that there was under the Tory rule, I suspect that there will not be
a landslide majority - enough people will remember the Tories to
offset the "blessed miracle" effect that Blair promised.

Wonder if Brown will do a Major? (Stepping in as PM thanks to the
previous incumbent then f*cking off to directorships in order to
cash in the bribes 'favours' he'd granted in office.)

[vinylsolution]

4. It IS 1979 again....

... and they're going to run with this again:





And the voters are going to forget - again....