An there's a blog which puts the accusations in print. What there is not is any mention of the banking failures or the global economic global crisis which resulted. There's no mention of the measures that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling took to save the banks, without which the effects on the UK and even world economy might have been absolutely catastrophic. There's no mention of the Quantative Easing that has softened the effects on industry, employment and growth. Apparently these events, which have dominated the news for the last two years and which were the stuff of politics and the 2010 election, never actually happened. Or if they did, Baroness warsi didn't see them. According to her, what happened was...
From wasting £12 billion on an NHS computer system that didn’t work to kitting out regional fire offices with £6,000 luxury coffee-making machines, Labour showed complete contempt for taxpayers’ money up and down this country.
It seems that Warsi thinks, in a economy of £trilllions and over 13 years, the cuts that George Osborne is so keen to implement were caused by some IT projects and the purchase of coffe machines!
There is also no mention of the fact that Labour had plans to address the crisis, with cuts/tax increases of £73 billions over 5 years.These would have been painful enough, but the ConDem coaltion plans £114 billions of cuts/tax increases and they are to be introduced more quickly. Nor is there any mention that the extra £40 billions is a straight ideological choice by the ConDems to reduce the size of the state to a level that Margaret Thatcher could only dream of.
Let's not hide from the fact that Labour was in government at the time of the banking failure and that any actions they took are open to criticism. Maybe they could have done some things differently. After all no government can get everything right, and the 2008 crisis was unprecedented in scope and potential for economic damage.
And badly managed IT projects are a fact of life, unfortunately.
The traditional method of gauging the truth of any political pronouncement is to judge whether the person is a "fool or a knave". If Baroness Warsi really believes that ..
The cuts to come are Labour’s cuts...and that the global economic and banking crisis never happened, then she is a fool.
If, on the other hand, she is perfectly aware of the global context of the crisis and the real reasons for the coming cuts, and she continues to insist that they are all Labour's fault, then she is a knave.
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