NIGEL LAWSON's budget revealed itself as extremely unpopular — a special snap opinion poll in the Sunday Times showing the Tories falling two per cent behind Labour immediately after the budget. But also significant was the rise in support for the SDP-Liberal Alliance — and Roy Hattersley came up with an 'alternative budget' which tremely similar to that proposed by Edward Heath Owen.
JOHN HARRISON and BOB MORGAN look at background to Lawson's budget. BUDGETS ARE not what they used to be. A few years ago, chancellors rose to explain how their governments would both raise and spend money over the coming year. This is people's idea of budgetting planning income and spending.
The financial mentators compared tax spending charges, budgets 'expansionary' or tractionary' according likely impact on total spending.
In comparison budgets today are non-events. Lawson's key inovation has been the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). This aims to bring spending closer loser to their income from taxes as the years go by growth in the amount of floating around the economy. chancellors LUW Cul budgets according to the MTFS cloth.
Recently have been announced some months before the spring budget. So anyone masochistic enough MTFS, dissect assess the March. the pre-budget newspapers.
was ex- tioning that battered dispatch The Financial David bridge the Leaks most Mandarins. dubbed *con- Treasury clings to their related paperwork boxed in buff coloured files.
money visor Sir their however •casual digest the public expenditure plans and monitor economic events over the winter months can easily sum of money the chancellor can plav around with come For the lazy there is always Yet budgets retain a certain mystique. Even a radical privatisation merbox.
Times still serves chicken legs and wine to its staff in a desperate attempt to replicate an OxBut it's the Treasury that takes the biscuit. The 3500 souls who work in that late Victorian neogothic building which dominates the southern end of Whitehall have just suffered from a rough few weeks.
sion Last year's budget leaks prompted an unsuccessful attempt by the police to smoke out the mole among the After Tisdall, Ponting and Massiter nobody was taking any time around. The tradition. All HUSL hang together on short pieces of metal tip. ped cord, called Treasury tags, and be This vear those concerning the budget carried sticky labels bearing the legend "secret' in red capitals.
Those privy to budget discussions including the chief economic adTerence Burns - had to report all contacts with journalists This reportedly generated masses of paperwork for one omical married to a reporter Paranoia about leaks led to security staff minding the xerox machines.
Last year Lawson's budget performance was feted by the financial press as 'bold, imaginative and radical'. They have got it wrong before. This year he knew he was in for a rougher ride. Unemployment had both edged up and elbowed itself into the centre stage of political 'wets' like Heath were starting to winge in public and Tories in marginal seats were looking nervously towards the next election.
But, LOSI importantly, superior Arthur Daleys who populate the financial community were getting ULCADY • Nobody seemed to believe Nigel's claim that he wasn't going to spend any more money this year. The Economist, commenting on government's expenditure wrote: "Government public spending white papers are looking more and more like interesting Treasury discusdocuments rather statements of intent... this year's contals assumptions public sector pay and state industries 1987-88 that belief. Even before threats of oil price cuts unsettled them further, financial markets were unimpressed, sterling tense, shares twitchy, interest rates edging up.' Tight Twitchy shares, tense sterling, this would never do. The City demanded a tight budget, and Lawson duly oblig ed. Money that had been promised for tax cuts was now to be allocated to the contingency reserve so as to offset overspending. The £1.5 billion of promised tax cuts was halved. evidently carry more clout than Ted Heath.
The Tory budget was obviously a non-starter for unemployed. But has Labour got an Ask 'yes'. We should frastructural investment and a few token hand-outs Labour's alternative budget for 1985 Leading woud be to than Lawson. cident', is similar to the figure proposed by the SDP and Tory 'wets' those with evel, irs peanuts. In fact if the Tore they package would not look much dif ferent from Hattersley's.
plans, look like? The starting point would be jobs. Around 3.3 million people are officially registered as unemployed Алошег mion or so than lack recognition in the statistics. Mass unemployment is morally unaccepabout Lane COLONICa movement. Jobs for all would boost working class struggle more effectivethan dozen depends on production and output on sales prospects. So the only way to boost jobs is to bump up spending Governments can do this by widening the gap between their from you Revenue. ing effective demand (a good thing). Lawson Public Sector Borrowing ment (PSBR and a bad thing).
Bankers suggest that creating four million o so jobs would require an expenditure millions boost of at least £25 billion - taking put.
Roy Hattersley and he'll say go for more inposals with the DUUl scupper spend f5 billion more - which, just by 'acthere's This may sound like a big deal but its current histor then Lawson's So what would a socialist budget revolutionary In a market economy employment measures would be own expenthey funnel away the Inland Keynes called this increas dubs it an increase in the of war. RequireBack of an envelope calculation the PSBR to around one tenth of outBoth the establishment and the Labour leadership greet such proboske policies would, they point-our, guffaws. Such the pound. send prices through the roof, and cause epilepsy in financial markets.
They are of course right — given current economic arrangements. But 'Current they belong the gare age riagno the dole queues are moribund to nationalise the banks When hot money flows cost tens of millions pounds in lost output, it is time to 'regulate' the currency exchanges.
These types of steps, let alone the nationalisation that necessar socialist economy, would of course b denounced by Lawson as 'extremist' But many of them are no different than those which capitalist govern ments themselves have taken in time As long as Labour remains trap ped within a framework where refuses to mount any assault on th financial and industrial institutions o capital it will be incapable of comin up with any credible alternative to the policies of Lawson.
THE VLM has always run an Easter ae.end school for the students on the elease course. For at least the last ears l've been going to Skegness to he weekend school Gradually over the years the women Dared from just going for a famieekend looking iren while their husbands went to ¿ chool, to having their own part of ate programme and choosing their own for the weekend, husbands looked after the children.
There have been several attempts to keep the women together schools. They weren't cessful - although we have had quite a few meetings — because of the fact that the people coming were trom all over county of Derbyshire. difficult to find a time and place that would suit all of them.
So when the Chesterfield Labour club was opened, I thought it was a good idea to start again, to try and get a permanent miners' wives group going with the women I knew who'd been to the last school. It wasn't all that successful.
But then the by-election came up and I joined the women's canvass team, with quite a number of other miners wives. eventually became Chesterfield Women's Action formed about a week before the strike begal. At that very first meeting we said that it was quite probable that there was going to be a miners' strike and that we would need to collect money miners. I went round the strike centres the first weeks of the strike, Margaret Vallins, helping to set up women's groups groups, waich gradually grew to about 15. We eventually ended after while the between all that sucHul was the Group, for the wiLl up with 34 public village Northern College communities.