Tag Archives: Keir Starmer

The ‘magic money tree’/’maxed-out national credit card’ LIES

Liars: both David Cameron and (now) Keir Starmer have voiced the falsehood that the UK has credit limits imposed elsewhere – it doesn’t. There IS a magic money tree, though – despite their claims to the contrary; it’s called the Bank of England. You won’t find this mentioned by the mainstream media, though – instead you have to come to Vox Political, Another Angry Voice, and Mainly Macro (among others).

Simon Wren-Lewis, over at Mainly Macro, has written a scathing critique of politicians like Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, who are copying the Tories by saying there is no “magic money tree” and that the government has “maxed-out the national credit cards”.

For clarity: there is a magic money tree. It’s called the Bank of England.

And it is impossible to max-out the national credit cards with the amount of debt the UK currently has.

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Professor Wren-Lewis explains:

Keir Starmer, in commenting on the recent Budget, said “Britain in recession, the national credit card maxed out, and despite the measures today, the highest tax burden for 70 years”. The analogy of maxing out the nation’s credit card has been repeated by other Shadow ministers. Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor, has joined many Conservative ministers in saying there is no ‘magic money tree’.

Anyone who knows any macroeconomics understands that these analogies are false. The nation does not have a credit card with an externally imposed credit limit that it can ‘max out’, and the UK government does have a magic money tree because it can create money.

Imagine, for example, if we forced politicians to be more precise. Rather than claiming that the government had ‘run out of money’ and ‘maxed out its credit card’, they would instead have to say that the government had almost hit their self-imposed borrowing limits.

Rather than saying you couldn’t promise to spend this or reduce that tax because there is no magic money tree, politicians instead would need to say that the government could create more money or borrow more, but that would add to aggregate demand which would risk higher inflation and so force the Bank of England to raise interest rates.

Why do politicians say there is no money tree at their disposal? Because they don’t like telling the truth, which is that they don’t want to break their fiscal rule, or they don’t want the additional spending or tax cut adding to aggregate demand and leading the central bank to raise interest rates. That is a trade-off where many voters might take a different view, so it is much easier for them to say there is no money. It is a way of disguising a political choice, and not being honest about these choices.

So ‘there is no magic money tree’ is normally said by Chancellors or Prime Ministers who want an easy excuse for not spending money or cutting taxes. It is a straightforward deception to give politicians an easier life, and therefore it is difficult to defend its use.

The phrase ‘maxing out the nation’s credit card’ is more often used by politicians attacking the borrowing record of others. Yet it too suggests politicians have less choice than they actually have. In this case it perpetuates the idea that governments can only borrow so much, and that they are currently hitting that limit.

This is nonsense. There is a limit to how much UK governments can borrow, but it is way above levels of debt ever historically recorded. (Debt was 2.7 times GDP after WWII.) [1] But it sounds more dramatic to say a government has maxed out its credit card than to say it is leaving insufficient headroom to meet its own fiscal rules.

The use of these false analogies probably wouldn’t matter too much if we had an informed and informing media that was quick to correct these attempts to mislead. Unfortunately the complete opposite is the case. Because much of the media views macroeconomics as too complex and boring for its viewers, it laps up these incorrect attempts to relate fiscal policy to household budgets.

Sometimes this media environment gives politicians little choice but to follow. But that is not the case with phrases like ‘no magic money tree’ and ‘maxing out the nation’s credit card’. No one is forcing politicians to use these phrases. Instead it is their own choice to do so. If they know they are false analogies that just mislead the public they shouldn’t use them. If they don’t know that they are false, I’m afraid that is even worse.

So, when Keir Starmer said those words in response to Jeremy Hunt’s Budget, somebody in BBC/ITV/Sky News or the newspapers should have immediately called them out as lies.

But they didn’t.

This means the media are misinforming the electorate. This in turn means that most of the voting population, at the next general election, will be basing their decision on false information.

That is inexcusable. There should probably be a law against it. But there isn’t, because the law-makers benefit from the falsehoods.


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Labour’s ‘fresh start’ seems to keep a LOT of rotten Tory depravities

It seems some of us are not impressed with Labour’s “fresh start”:

That’ll be because Keir Starmer seems to be keeping an awfully large number of Tory policies.

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For those who can’t read images, they are:

The Bedroom Tax
The Rape Clause (in Child Benefit claims)
The two-child benefit cap
Starving school children
Asylum seekers on barges
Hard Brexit
NHS privatisation
Anti-trade union laws
Coalitions with Conservatives in Scottish councils
The unelected House of Lords
Anti-worker laws
Universal Credit
Children in poverty
Anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes

You might not agree with everything on the list. Feel free to add your own choices!


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UK politicians wishing Muslims a “peaceful Ramadan” are hypocrites

Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak: they’re both quick to wish Muslim voters in the UK a peaceful Ramadan, while supplying – and supporting the supply of – weapons to Israel so it can continue killing Muslims in Gaza.

The hypocrisy of this.

The Conservatives…

… and Labour…

… are wishing Muslims a “peaceful” Ramadan.

Included in those wishes must be the Muslim people of Gaza, who have been subjected to five months of genocide – so far – by their Israeli neighbours, who are using weaponry supplied by the UK, and who are aided by UK naval support.

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A more honest message would have been: “Ramadan mubarak to Muslims everywhere except Gaza. Muslims in Gaza can all die.”

After all, that’s what they have been doing, thanks to the aid the UK gives Israel:

These two-faced fakers in the Conservative Party and Labour should all be kicked out at the next election. I mean, would you vote for any of these liars?


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Is Vox Political having an effect on politics from the bottom up?

It seems Vox Political may be having an effect on politics – from the bottom up (although this may just be a fortunate coincidence).

Less than a week after I wrote the following –

– the image above appeared.

Point made?

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Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak said Israel had the right to do this to Gaza’s children. What are they doing to yours?

Starved to death: the leaders of both the Labour and Conservative parties in the UK have said that Israel had the right to starve Yazan to death, even though it is a war crime. And what about children here in the UK?

Remember Yazan, the Gazan child who was malnourished and starving, but who This Site reported had managed to receive some food from aid drops? Dead now.

It wasn’t enough. Israel’s stranglehold on road routes into Gaza, coupled with its mass murder of anybody trying to pick up food from aid drops that do get in (by air or road), means famine is gripping the Palestinian enclave.

It is the latest stage of Israel’s planned genocide that was launched in October last year – supported by Western politicians including UK prime minister Rishi Sunak and Opposition leader Keir Starmer.

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So this is as much on their heads as it is on that of Benjamin Netanyahu:

Alongside Yazan, at least 15 children are said to have died in a single hospital in northern Gaza, with another death reported in Rafah.

Strangely, BBC reporting – like that of most (if not all) of the UK’s mass media – fails to mention that this has been caused deliberately by the Israeli government and military:

Who’s next for the charnel house? This girl, perhaps?

Meanwhile in the UK, Waitrose sells you food grown on stolen Palestinian land:

I am reminded once again of the late, great Tony Benn, who said, “The way governments treat refugees is the way they would treat the rest of us if they could get away with it.”

Yazan’s death is an example of the way the UK government – and opposition – treats refugees, because both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer support Israel’s policy of starvation.

You may be shocked to learn what is happening to children here in the UK.


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Another Keir Starmer lie? Election candidates to be chosen centrally?

Keir Starmer: they lie, and they lie, and they lie… (allegedly).

Here’s the claim:

Didn’t Keir Starmer say something about constituency Labour parties selecting their own MPs, before he became leader?

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Yes:

The comments are searing:

So, if this claim is true, not only will Keir Starmer have reneged on yet another promise, but he’ll be foisting candidates of highly suspicious character on UK Parliamentary constituencies.

Worth your vote? Really?


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Ceasefire motion fiasco triggers calls for Commons Speaker to be removed

Blood on his hands: if Keir Starmer really interfered in Parliamentary procedure to water down the SNP’s Gaza ceasefire motion, then people may justifiably be concerned that he has prolonged Israel’s genocide.

If Lyndsay Hoyle really did think he was safeguarding his job as Commons Speaker by allowing Labour’s amendment to the SNP’s ceasefire motion to be debated, he’s thinking twice now.

After he allowed the amendment onto the agenda, in defiance of convention and against the advice of his clerk…

… it was suggested that he had been blackmailed into taking it by Keir Starmer (possibly via his chief of staff, Sue Gray), with a threat that he would not be re-elected as Speaker after the general election if he didn’t toe the line:

Hoyle denied being pressured by anybody from the Labour Party.

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Instead, after holding meetings with representatives from all sides of the House of Commons, Hoyle came up with a fantastical story that he had been presented with “frightening” threats to MPs’ safety.

He said he

“never, ever wanted to go through a situation where I pick up a phone to find a friend of whatever side has been murdered by a terrorist”.

He added: “I also don’t want another attack on this House. I was in the chair on that day. I have seen, I have witnessed.

“I won’t share the details but the details of the things that have been brought to me are absolutely frightening on all members of this House, on all sides. I have a duty of care and I say that and if my mistake is looking after members, I am guilty. I am guilty because… I have a duty of care that I will carry out to protect people. It is the protection that led me to make a wrong decision.”

Do you believe that? Tom Smith, who runs Another Angry Voice, doesn’t.

He wrote:

Here’s just some of the stuff that’s wrong with this absurd Starmerite narrative that Hoyle had to bin parliamentary procedure and side with Starmer in order to protect MPs from potential harm.

Labour MPs bragged to their mates in the media that they made Hoyle do what he did by threatening his position as speaker.

Hoyle himself stated that he was doing it for ‘procedural reasons’, rather than for the safety of MPs.

The implication that MPs lives would be in danger were they to have debated a motion that referenced Israeli “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians rather than one that didn’t is downright absurd.

It’s beyond depraved to invoke the horrific killings of MPs by a far-right extremist (Jo Cox) and an Islamist terrorist (David Amess) to portray overwhelmingly peaceful Palestinian solidarity campaigners as a threat to the safety of politicians.

Citing potential terrorist violence in order to rip up established procedures sets an extremely dangerous precedent that clearly incentivises violent threats against MPs from people who expect they can influence political processes through threats and intimidation.

MPs have a long proven track record of fabricating threats and abuse.

MPs centring themselves as the primary victims in all of this is utterly obscene.

I agree with him.

At the time of writing, 67 MPs – mostly from the Conservative Party and the SNP – have signed a motion of ‘no confidence’ in the Speaker.

He should resign; he made a terrible mistake – possibly under pressure from the Labour leadership – and now he has tried to justify himself in a way that is not credible.

And then there is Keir Starmer’s role in this.

If he did pressurise the Speaker – in any way – then he has disgraced his position, the Labour Party, Parliament and the UK (because this was a debate about this country’s role in international affairs).

In such circumstances, he certainly would not deserve to become a prime minister of the UK. Until the questions about this fiasco are answered in full, he should not be allowed the opportunity.


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Is Labour sabotaging Gaza ceasefire motion to appease Israel

Keir Starmer: see that flag behind him? Is it the emblem of his real bosses?

Today’s the day! But will it be the day Labour sabotages the Gaza ceasefire motion in a bid to appease Israel?

As This Writer types, MPs in Westminster are set to vote on whether to demand a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in what is left of the Gaza Strip.

The motion has been tabled by the Scottish National Party and enjoys widespread support among the people of the United Kingdom. A petition demanding that MPs also support it has been signed by more than 50,000 people:

But Labour leader Keir Starmer has apparently told his MPs to reject it – because it correctly states that Israel is inflicting collective punishment, which is a war crime, on the non-combatant civilians of Gaza:

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Instead, Labour and the Conservatives have tried to muddy the issue by tabling motions of their own. Here’s Lisa Nandy – is she still the chair of Labour Friends of Palestine? That would be hypocritical now, wouldn’t it? – talking a lot of nonsense about her party’s motion:

The Labour amendment sets conditions for a ceasefire that make it less likely to happen; the claim that the SNP doesn’t stipulate that the ceasefire should be by both Israel and Hamas is nonsense – a ceasefire must involve both sides, and the other conditions are mainly to offer Israel excuses to continue its genocide (or so it seems to This Writer).

Here’s commentary by the ever-brilliant Jess Barnard:

There will be consequences for this – but it seems Starmer is gambling that too few voters will impose those consequences on him:

This Writer abandoned the tactical vote campaign some time ago. I advocate voters actually carrying out their civic duty, which is to read the manifestos and election literature of all candidates in your constituency and vote for whichever of them offers the best package for youNothing else should matter to you – certainly not which of the mainstream Establishment parties (Labour, the Tories, possibly the Liberal Democrats) should form a government.

This is the only way to achieve the change the UK needs and it is ironic that it requires us to do nothing more than what we should always have been doing anyway.

It certainly seems that some Labour MPs will face stern repercussions – such as those in the left-wing Socialist Campaign Group – if they oppose a motion that may help end the murder of innocent people, including children:

The three-line whip claim has been confirmed by ITV political editor Robert Peston. Commentators are asking an obvious question about it:

He’s no kind of leader if he can’t inspire his people to follow him; it strongly suggests that his entire approach is wrong.

And that suggests that we would be wrong to vote for him or his party in an election.

Commentators have already chosen their sides. You can tell from the tone of this article where This Writer stands, and here’s John Smith, son of the late and much-loved Harry Leslie Smith:

If the ceasefire motion is voted down, it will be a clear indication that our MPs are indeed in Parliament for the welfare of the few – the few in question being the Israeli government, its supporters, lobbyists and mouthpieces.

We know from events leading up to the start of World War II that appeasement does not work. If our MPs offer Israel an inch, it will try to take every square mile of Gaza. We must therefore judge our MPs on what they choose today – and respond harshly if their choice is wrong.


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Starmer’s dilemma: he’s not an alternative to the Tories and he isn’t even interesting

Stiff as a board: Keir Starmer simply isn’t interesting – and he doesn’t have any policies worth supporting.

The opinion polls suggest a landslide general election victory for the Labour Party – not because Keir Starmer’s policies are any good but because people are so sick of the Tories that any old rubbish will seem better.

It is likely to have the lowest turnout, as a percentage of the electorate, of any election since universal suffrage was introduced, meaning there will be strong arguments that whichever party forms the next government will not have a mandate and proportional representation should be introduced to restore power to the people.

The problem is that any government formed by Starmer will be as right-wing as Rishi Sunak’s, with policies that are indistinguishable from those of Sunak’s administration. In other words, none of Starmer’s policies will work either.

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And the UK’s electorate doesn’t turn out to elect right-wing governments. We don’t like them.

Consider the following:

So election expert Professor John Curtice reckons, “None of [the party leaders] enthuse the electorate, none of them are popular, all of them are regarded as dull as dishwater… So what’s the point of turning out to vote? If we give people a reason to vote, they’ll turn out.”

But people don’t have a reason to vote.

And Ruth Wodak said: “If there is a good opposition, if there’s an alternative programme, you might have a chance [to defeat far-right populism]… One has to provide alternatives, provide more participation so that citizens feel that they are acknowledged and that their worries are being taken seriously.”

There isn’t a good opposition. There isn’t an alternative programme. Keir Starmer has removed all his alternatives and cut back on participation – because, at heart, he is a Conservative cuckoo in the Labour nest.

Oh, he keeps pretending to offer more participation – here’s his current pledge:

But you can be sure it will be withdrawn long before anybody expects it to be put into practice, just like all Labour’s other pledges under Starmer’s leadership.

The UK needs alternatives – and we won’t get them from Labour or any of the other mainstream parties.

That’s why I am advising everyone to actually find out what the candidates in your constituency are planning to do, if they are lucky enough to be elected.

That is what party manifestos are for. Independent candidates also have policy documents and they will all be online for you to find and read.

You need to find and read these policy documents, and then you need to make a dispassionate choice, based on what you have read.

Which of the candidates offers the most policies that fit what you need? And, by that, I mean: who will improve your own life the most?

Do not consider how other people will vote, either in your constituency or the other 649 around the UK. That is not your concern.

It is not for you to worry about which party will get enough votes to actually enact its policies. This will lead you down the usual garden path to voting in a government that won’t do anything at all for the good of the country, like the one we’ve had since 2010.

BE SELFISH. Bizarrely, it might be the only way to get the kind of government that all of us need.


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Never mind the spin – here’s #TelAvivKeith

#TelAvivKeith: Keir Starmer’s slavish support for Israel has earned him a new derogatory nickname. But if the cap fits…?

It’s the perfect put-down for a Labour leader who sold out to a foreign power before winning any power for himself.

Keir Starmer’s unquestioning support for Israel has been just a little too conspicuous since October 7 last year – and today (February 17, 2024), somebody found the perfect way to sum it up:

He can try to pretend he’s been taking legal advice into consideration but everybody has already concluded that the only advice he’s accepting is coming from Tel Aviv.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

The nickname caught on quickly:

And then it started trending:

It’s because right-thinking people think it’s accurate, of course:

Even now, when he has changed his tune in response to public demand, #TelAvivKeith can’t avoid the public spotlight that highlights all his little evasions and caveats:

This Writer has said it before and will undoubtedly do so again: Do you really want this man running your country when he is so clearly influenced by another one?


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