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I hear the 2007 global economic crash was the result Gordon Brown's mismanagement.
This is such a straw man argument - the point that Cameron et al were trying to make was that towards the end of Blair II and all the way through Blair III they really ramped up spending in a pro-cyclical, anti-Keynesian fashion. This meant that even at the end of one of the greatest periods of growth in the UK’s history, the fiscal balance going into the recession was already in deficit. Hence when automatic stabilisers kicked in in 2008-9 we were breaching all of the EU Stability and Growth Pact triggers and got placed in an Excessive Deficit Procedure. This would have been the case even without the nationalisation of RBS etc (which had a national debt impact but not a lasting deficit impact).
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NickCJ
miro_o
The Silver lining of this election result (personally) is the Conservatives get to own the disaster of Brexit (an entirely right wing invention). Or at least, some people will see it as this. Sadly Brexit may pile us into such dark times of individualism and intolerance history will be 'revised'. Brexit will be seen as a response to Tony Blair's immigration policy in the same way I hear the 2007 global economic crash was the result Gordon Brown's mismanagement.
Whatever the economic prospects of Brexit, the public didn't generally believe we'll disappear down a black hole and you certainly can't campaign telling people that. Corbyn's Labour were widely accused of lying, even when they tried to present the full, costed truth. So I'm suggesting Labour only needed to be on the right-side of the tories - less dishonest. Labour (this election and before) were perceived by the voter to lack fiscal credibility, so actually had more to gain (than the tories) by having a modest spending plan. It would have even married well with the pre-existing narrative of Boris as reckless chancer (if you wanted to go down that route).
Labour could have still been the relatively high spending government, because they had tax plans that should bring more revenue.