Britain’s Conservative Government Knows How to Turn the Economy Around: Austerity and Clichés

That’s Correct, It’s What’s In the Conservative Playbook

England has a nice tradition where they have Political Party conventions every year, instead of every four years like the United States.  Of course, being British, their conventions contain real policy discussions and are a part of the governing process, unlike the U. S. conventions, which mimic the British only in that they are coronations.

Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the Conservative Party convention and

he promised Britons that they would pull through to better days if they shunned paralyzing “gloom and fear” about the future and embraced the “can-do optimism” that had made the country a worldbeater in the past.

“I know that we can turn this ship around,” he said at the Conservative Party’s annual conference.

thus maximizing the number of hackneyed clichés that one can get into so small a part of his speech.  

As far as changing policy in the face of a weakening of the economy Mr. Cameron

vowed on Wednesday not to bow to growing demands for a retreat from his government’s sweeping austerity measures.

But then, why would he do so when here is what is happening in Britain.

the government’s Office for National Statistics said economic growth between April and June was 0.1 percent, half the previous estimate. It also revised first-quarter growth down to 0.4 percent from 0.5 percent.

The nearly 5 percent inflation rate is the highest in years, and unemployment is also rising, at close to 8 percent.

And how bad are things, well the Bank of England which had been worrying about inflation is now set to engage in expansionary money policy, what the Financial Times calls “Shock and Awe”.  And the government may have to bail out RBS, a bank that they bailed out before. 

Nervousness is growing in Whitehall that the government might have to inject further capital into Royal Bank of Scotland as part of a European effort to recapitalise the continent’s banking system.

But that’s okay, if Britain will just embrace ”can do optimism” all will be well.