UK's Johnson pledges 'Rooseveltian' spending boost after COVID hit

 

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak visit Pizza Pilgrims in West India Quay, in London, Britian June 26, 2020. Heathcliff O'Malley/Pool via REUTERS

 

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a "Rooseveltian" boost to public spending to help the country's economy recover from the coronavirus shock and said a return to austerity would be a mistake.

 

Johnson said he would double down on his plans to increase investment and said his government - which has already announced emergency spending and tax measures worth an estimated 133 billion pounds - would continue to help people and businesses.

 

"This is the moment for a Rooseveltian approach to the UK," Johnson told Times Radio on Monday.

 

Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" programme, which included a raft of job-creating public works projects, helped the United States recover from the Great Depression.

 

"I do think the investment will pay off because this is a very, very dynamic, very productive economy," Johnson said, promising a platform that would encourage companies to invest in capital and in skills training.

 

Earlier on Monday, Britain's debt office said it plans to sell a record 275 billion pounds ($340 billion) of government debt between April and August to pay for the huge spending response to the coronavirus pandemic, more than double the amount sold in the whole previous financial year.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-06-29

 

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Edited June 29, 20206 yr by Bluespunk

I'm a people when ever you want Boris send me the cheque.

If Corbyn had won the election it would have been a Stalinist 5 year plan instead ????

I think the corona affected his brain and turned him into a spending labourite. The Tories are ( or used to be ) about living withing their means and not borrowing and spending.

The man is a thundering idiot who can only perform stunts like doing push ups in order to get press coverage. He has led an utter shambles of a response to Covid and all his spending announcements are simply more attention seeking because they are smoke and mirrors money. The UK will in 3 years be a shrivelled residue of what it was prior to the pandemic and Brexit, and that was not very much.

Will it involve lots and lots of lovely property deals?

Whilst I don't normally support these "Labouresque" policies of throwing around vast amounts of taxpayers cash, I think that due to the Corona Virus the Keynesian approach is probably the right move to get the economy moving again after the disastrous start to 2020.

 

At least Boris and Rishi will put the money in mostly the right areas, unlike the loony leftists Corbyn, Abbott, Long Bailey et al. would have done.

 

 

First Churchill, now Roosevelt, Johnson needs to quit emulating leaders of the last century while he’s ahead.

10 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

First Churchill, now Roosevelt, Johnson needs to quit emulating leaders of the last century while he’s ahead.

Thatcher won't be far behind as soon as we're unshackled at the end of December ???? 

 

He won't bother with Leopold.

Edited June 30, 20206 yr by evadgib

On 6/3/2020 at 6:01 PM, YetAnother said:

sure they will; same as they caved to the mainland china in the 1997 'negotiations'

 

23 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Whilst I don't normally support these "Labouresque" policies of throwing around vast amounts of taxpayers cash, I think that due to the Corona Virus the Keynesian approach is probably the right move to get the economy moving again after the disastrous start to 2020.

 

At least Boris and Rishi will put the money in mostly the right areas, unlike the loony leftists Corbyn, Abbott, Long Bailey et al. would have done.

 

 

Johnson's pledges are meaningless. He's basically a not very honest journalist who can think only as far as the next snappy headline, and no further.

Presumably you're happy about all the taxpayers' money he's throwing at his cronies who then seem incapable of doing what they're supposed to?

The left have a better record at managing public finances - don't believe the lies in the Daily Mail - and would be unlikely to have made such a mess of covid, and certainly wouldn't be threatening a disastrous no deal brexit, poisonous food, dearer medicines and all the other "delights" we'd be saddled with under their ghastly US trade agreement.

10 minutes ago, evadgib said:

Thatcher won't be far behind as soon as we're unshackled at the end of December ???? 

 

He won't bother with Leopold.

Well yes, she did declare 'society is dead'.

2 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Well yes, she did declare 'society is dead'.

Along with "No!, No!, No!" to the ???????? ????

3 hours ago, JonnyF said:

Whilst I don't normally support these "Labouresque" policies of throwing around vast amounts of taxpayers cash, I think that due to the Corona Virus the Keynesian approach is probably the right move to get the economy moving again after the disastrous start to 2020.

 

At least Boris and Rishi will put the money in mostly the right areas, unlike the loony leftists Corbyn, Abbott, Long Bailey et al. would have done.

 

 

Reading posts such as yours and seeing all these Johnson cheerleaders with their positive emojis to any suggestion that he is a good leader or is fiscally responsible is absolutely staggering.

 

The man's record in public office speaks for itself. It has been dogged repeatedly by his squandering of taxpayers' money, shoveling it in its millions into the pockets of his friends and donors with next to no oversight or accountability. Since he has entered No. 10, that transfer from the many to the few has only ramped up. 

 

3 hours ago, JonnyF said:

At least Boris and Rishi will put the money in mostly the right areas, unlike the loony leftists Corbyn, Abbott, Long Bailey et al. would have done.

Do you honestly and genuinely believe this?  This is the rhetoric of some sort of cultish, NK media organisation, trying to claim that black is actually white. Comical Ali hasn't a thing on you. 

 

I see his mother forget to help him dress properly again!!

Damned if he does spend, damned if he doesn’t spend. He’s certainly been very generous with the public purse.

A troll cartoon has been removed

5 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

Will it involve lots and lots of lovely property deals?

I'm sure they haven't got the whole porn industry covered yet, just Desmond so as far as we know. Plenty more to offer planning concessions to. The next line will be a knighthood and planning permission for a brothel in return for a modest donation to Tory party funds!

1 hour ago, xylophone said:

I see his mother forget to help him dress properly again!!

Yes and the awful teeth. Surely he can afford implants despite all the alimony. He could get a package with breast reduction treatment and a brain implant at the same time. Then his mother could smarten him up!

better save some for all the holes that are going to needed to be dug about a month after opening the bars..

1 hour ago, RuamRudy said:

Reading posts such as yours and seeing all these Johnson cheerleaders with their positive emojis to any suggestion that he is a good leader or is fiscally responsible is absolutely staggering.

 

The man's record in public office speaks for itself. It has been dogged repeatedly by his squandering of taxpayers' money, shoveling it in its millions into the pockets of his friends and donors with next to no oversight or accountability. Since he has entered No. 10, that transfer from the many to the few has only ramped up. 

 

Do you honestly and genuinely believe this?  This is the rhetoric of some sort of cultish, NK media organisation, trying to claim that black is actually white. Comical Ali hasn't a thing on you. 

 

Agree......but please don't say ramped up.

 

1 hour ago, RuamRudy said:

Reading posts such as yours and seeing all these Johnson cheerleaders with their positive emojis to any suggestion that he is a good leader or is fiscally responsible is absolutely staggering.

 

The man's record in public office speaks for itself. It has been dogged repeatedly by his squandering of taxpayers' money, shoveling it in its millions into the pockets of his friends and donors with next to no oversight or accountability. Since he has entered No. 10, that transfer from the many to the few has only ramped up. 

 

Do you honestly and genuinely believe this?  This is the rhetoric of some sort of cultish, NK media organisation, trying to claim that black is actually white. Comical Ali hasn't a thing on you. 

 

Do I believe they would do better than the North London Anti-Semitic champagne socialists on the left? Yes. Yes, I do. 

 

Better than Jo "I'm going to be PM" Swinson (weeks before she lost her seat in the biggest political humiliation I can remember)? Yes. Yes, I do.

 

Last time I voted Labour, Blair took us to war in Iraq with Bush based on the lies about WMD. And you call the Tories the nasty party? Laughable.

 

Labour are still utterly clueless, as shown in the clip below. Starmer sacked Long Bailey for anti semitic tweets only this week. Who is the nasty party? 

 

 

18 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

If Corbyn had won the election it would have been a Stalinist 5 year plan instead ????

 

He'd have imposed a land tax, wealth tax, extra corporation tax, increased VAT, seized personal savings over a certain amount, nationalized banks, transport, utilities, and turned agriculture into workers co-operatives.

 

His total media control would have ensured full coverage of the resultant utopia.

12 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Do I believe they would do better than the North London Anti-Semitic champagne socialists on the left? Yes. Yes, I do. 

 

Better than Jo "I'm going to be PM" Swinson (weeks before she lost her seat in the biggest political humiliation I can remember)? Yes. Yes, I do.

 

Last time I voted Labour, Blair took us to war in Iraq with Bush based on the lies about WMD. And you call the Tories the nasty party? Laughable.

 

Labour are still utterly clueless, as shown in the clip below. Starmer sacked Long Bailey for anti semitic tweets only this week. Who is the nasty party? 

 

 

Is this complete lack of aspiration solely a British thing? Do people in other supposedly developed countries think that, given the choice between a sh!t sandwich on white bread or brown, they must choose according to their bread preference?

 

Why not reject entirely the notion that you need to accept either? Rather than this weak, playground nonsense of shoring up the tories because the losers would have been, in your opinion, worse, how about actually holding your elected representatives to account?

 

If your only defence of the Tories is to point at a party that hasn't been in power for a decade, then what hope is there that we will ever get a competent, upright government?

12 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Do I believe they would do better than the North London Anti-Semitic champagne socialists on the left? Yes. Yes, I do. 

 

Better than Jo "I'm going to be PM" Swinson (weeks before she lost her seat in the biggest political humiliation I can remember)? Yes. Yes, I do.

 

Last time I voted Labour, Blair took us to war in Iraq with Bush based on the lies about WMD. And you call the Tories the nasty party? Laughable.

 

Labour are still utterly clueless, as shown in the clip below. Starmer sacked Long Bailey for anti semitic tweets only this week. Who is the nasty party? 

 

 

 

Abbott was a big liability but Corbyn had a relationship with her. Hey ho!

 

Starmer sacked the Corbyn clone Long Bailey for ant-semtism which she seems to share with her mentor.

 

However, he hasn't sacked the horrendous Naz Sharma who has twice been censured for anti-semitism and retweeted her support for a tweet saying all the white underage victims of sexual abuse should shut their mouths in the interests of racial harmony!

 

Hypocrisy and double standards continue to be Labours habits.

 

This is nothing like the old Labour socialists who created and delivered social improvements.

1 minute ago, RuamRudy said:

Is this complete lack of aspiration solely a British thing? Do people in other supposedly developed countries think that, given the choice between a sh!t sandwich on white bread or brown, they must choose according to their bread preference?

 

Why not reject entirely the notion that you need to accept either? Rather than this weak, playground nonsense of shoring up the tories because the losers would have been, in your opinion, worse, how about actually holding your elected representatives to account?

 

If your only defence of the Tories is to point at a party that hasn't been in power for a decade, then what hope is there that we will ever get a competent, upright government?

 

Unfortunately the current system is rigged to favor the mainstream parties and discourage new independent thinking and increased accountability.

 

Politicians rely on the apathy, feelings of not being able to change things, lack of education and knowledge, of the majority of the electorate, which they do their best to fuel.

 

Not just in the UK either.

6 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

Is this complete lack of aspiration solely a British thing? Do people in other supposedly developed countries think that, given the choice between a sh!t sandwich on white bread or brown, they must choose according to their bread preference?

 

Why not reject entirely the notion that you need to accept either? Rather than this weak, playground nonsense of shoring up the tories because the losers would have been, in your opinion, worse, how about actually holding your elected representatives to account?

 

If your only defence of the Tories is to point at a party that hasn't been in power for a decade, then what hope is there that we will ever get a competent, upright government?

Till something better comes along the voters will still vote Tory because all they have to do is look at the alternative and it's not a pretty sight.

5 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

 

 

This is nothing like the old Labour socialists who created and delivered social improvements.

You have a long memory, but indeed Britain progressed hugely under Atlee, and Wilson.

I'm not remotely interested in RLB or Naz Sharma, it is way off topic for a start, and Starmer has already been shown to be more popular than Boris, making up a huge deficit in a few short months, time will tell, but expecting everything fixed overnight is silly.

 

THE TOPIC IS Johnson's spending pledge. All countries will have to open the purse strings. The question is whether Johnson like Trump will simply look after his own, or actually do what the great Roosevelt did, and take care of all.  Johnson's record is not encouraging, and anyway Cummings seems to own him in the same way Putin owns Trump.

13 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

Is this complete lack of aspiration solely a British thing? Do people in other supposedly developed countries think that, given the choice between a sh!t sandwich on white bread or brown, they must choose according to their bread preference?

 

Why not reject entirely the notion that you need to accept either? Rather than this weak, playground nonsense of shoring up the tories because the losers would have been, in your opinion, worse, how about actually holding your elected representatives to account?

 

If your only defence of the Tories is to point at a party that hasn't been in power for a decade, then what hope is there that we will ever get a competent, upright government?

I agree with some of that. However, we are forced to choose one of the parties that stands in our constituency. Of them all, the Tories were the best option IMO (you disagree but that's why we have democratic votes even if the latest trend is to try and reverse the result e.g. Brexit). Obviously none of the parties are perfect.

 

I have in the past held my local MP to account, however it is the job of the opposition to hold the government to account. Unfortunately Labour are currently mired in in fighting about the future direction of the party and antisemitism. That is not pointing fingers, it is a realistic summary of the facts.

8 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I think the corona affected his brain and turned him into a spending labourite. The Tories are ( or used to be ) about living withing their means and not borrowing and spending.

worked well for herbert hoover

Go for it Boris nothing to lose, encourage and fund the UK talent, lets get moving........

 

No stress, if all goes a little pear shaped Sturgeon and Starmer will no doubt be called upon to step in and provide their well manifested fix for the post covid era ????

 

Britain is in a win win situation it would appear -  all good