What drives English Labour - ignorance or malice?

Published in The National March 29th, 2024.

When Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves say government spending is constrained by tax revenues, what drives them to promote this lie - ignorance or malice? The government creates money all the time. How else could it have bailed out the banks, supported the economy during Covid, or continue to fund its endless wars?   

Because it owns a central bank, the UK government can create all the money it needs to do what it wants - it can’t go bust. 

As former US Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan explained: “There’s nothing to prevent the federal government from creating as much money as it wants. The question is, how do you set up a system which assures that real assets are created?”

That’s the kicker - does the money create real assets, does it create wealth? We know that money by itself has no value - it derives value from the goods and services in the economy. It’s the government’s job to ensure that real assets are produced from the money it creates. If it doesn’t do this, growth stalls and people suffer, which is what is happening in the UK.

One area where the UK government has failed the people is healthcare. A nation’s health is its most vital asset. Unhealthy people can’t work or lead productive lives. Every pound spent on healthcare generates £4 of economic growth, a far more productive endeavour than tax cuts for the wealthy.

The NHS is collapsing because the Tories have deliberately underfunded it. Their goal all along was privatisation. Starmer’s Labour, generously bankrolled by private healthcare companies, is poised to finish the job.  

If Scotland is to be a healthy, wealthy and economically literate nation, it must end the failing union.