By Clare George-Hilley Director of Communities and Social Justice
Clare George-Hilley: Labour cannot be trusted with the economy
Contrary to popular belief, the last Labour Government did indeed secure one lasting legacy of note, and that was reminding every man, woman and child in the country that they cannot be trusted with the economy. As the banks crashed and the mountains of debt stacked up, like a dead-beat poker player, putting his family home on the line for one last thrill of the gamble, Gordon Brown came close to bankrupting our country, leaving us knee-deep in debts for the foreseeable future.
Throughout history, every Labour Government has run out of our money, but on this occasion, the end result was horrific. Yet so shameless has Ed Miliband and his devious sidekick Ed Balls been that they have the gall to attack the Conservatives for clearing up the mess, a mess which they themselves created. It’s a bit like having your credit card stolen, and then having to listen to the scurrilous thieves mocking and attacking you for attempting clear the debts which they ran up at their own leisure.
Nobody is saying that the last few years haven’t been tough, but the Conservatives have made the right decisions in the national interest to help protect our country from Labour’s economic gambling legacy. It is also perfectly typical of this shameless Labour mob to attempt to spin these necessary savings as an attack on the fabric of society by the Conservatives, completely ignoring the fact that these hardships were built, created and inflicted by Labour’s overspending and mismanaging of the economy.
We’ve taken the right steps to reduce the deficit, shrinking our country’s obscene and bloated welfare system which allowed violent individuals like Mick Philpott to live a life of luxury and traps jobless households on benefits for generations to come. By rolling back these welfare traps, we are getting more and more people back into work, for the first time in years, it will pay more to get up and do a full day at work than it will to sit around in front of the television.
We’ve taken the bold decisions on child benefits, housing benefits and room allocations to rebalance the system and ensure those that can work are helped to do so whilst reducing the cost for British taxpayers. We’re getting Britain back on track by being honest about the size of the challenge facing the country and supporting people accustomed to a life on the dole to get up, get out and turn their lives around.
In this country, greedy executives in the financial services industry are often reviled for creating a ‘casino banking’ culture. It’s now also time for the country to condemn those responsible for the ‘casino government’ – an organisation with a casual spending culture, playing roulette with our future. The exact same kind of Government we will end up with if Ed Miliband and Ed Balls get there grubby hands on our economy again.
The next election will be a very clear choice between a sensible, sober Conservative Government that will spend money wisely and conduct all of its business in the national interest. The other choice is a spendaholic Labour chancer, happy to put your house and family on the line for one last roll of the dice. Labour’s gambling addiction wrecked our country, but the Conservatives are getting it back on track.
Clare George-Hilley is a Conservative Councillor in the London Borough of Croydon
Follow Clare George-Hilley on Twitter @ClareHilley
Read Clare George-Hilley’s Blog here: The Hilley Blog
See also:
Ed Miliband knifed his own brother and now he’s playing politics with Syria
