Memo to George Bush
You do not fight recessions by giving away tax and running a budget deficit in an attempt to try and sustain consumer spending. In that direction lies inflation and a growing balance of payments deficit.
If you want to run a budget deficit, and it should only be a temporary thing, it should be spent on infrastructure so that there is something to show at the end of it which adds to the nation's stock of wealth.
The railway here was electrified in the 1930s as part of a series of measures designed to alleviate mass unemployment. This was a permanent addition to Britain's wealth, and a tangible one as it resulted in enhanced land values.
The same principle was applied by your predecessor F D Roosevelt, in the policy known as the New Deal.
I wrote to my MP on two entirely separate issues recently. The first was to do with the replacement for the Inter City 125 train, which at £2.6 million per vehicle, is twice as expensive as it ought to be. The second concerned the benefits of a switch from business rate and Council Tax to a tax based on site values. In both cases, the replies were full of spurious, unsubstantiated assertions and completely flawed arguments. This is typical. You will not get an iota of sense from the government on any area of public policy at all - finance, economics, trade and employment, agriculture, housing, health, transport, energy. All junk. If you write to your MP you will invariably receive answers that are an insult to your intelligence, no matter what subject you are writing about. Of course they cannot understand statistics. They are innumerate. Whitehall is staffed with idiots with a high IQ. Look at their IT projects. And mind your purse, they will have that too.
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