The Election and Young People...what happened?

Quite a few TV reports after the election were talking about the failure of the Labour party to put together a coherent plan or plans. It seemed that their manifesto was cobbled together over a few beers in one of the smokey pubs in Islington, London. It was mentioned quite a few times that young people, in particular those who worked hard at the door calling, could not understand why the Labour manifesto was rejected. Well in my opinion it is that young people have no memory of things that happened in the past. I remember the 1970’s when I lost my house because of the incredible interest rates due to mismanagement of the economy by Labour. The interest rate I had to pay was nearly 10%! The mortgage was no longer affordable. The Labour party has a definite problem with economics which was pretty visible in their promises. But the young people, in particular students, only saw the free university fees promise. I don’t blame them but one should think how that would be paid for? Then there was the promise to cut Universal Credit but no detail or idea what would be replacing it. Other promises and ideas, in particular the need for increased borrowing were so impossibly idiotic that I hoped young people could see that, but I think they glossed it over, covered their eyes and plugged their ears. I have said it many times before, the basic tenet of economics is still as it always has been. You cannot spend money you haven’t got unless you borrow someone else’s. I know that many governments just print more money from time to time but that fuels inflation. As such a strong set of regulations are needed to control that and yes in these times, after the last Labour government’s failure (again!) to control spending the Conservatives had no option but to reduce spending and bring the deficit under control. That did reduce the need for borrowing. However as we know, the amount of debt is still just over a trillion pounds. In the past this was taken to be a figure with 18 zeros but now (since the 1970’s) apparently a trillion is a million million so £1,000,000,000,000. A huge amount. Whatever you see promised, look at the invisible background and start the grey matter between the ears. I would have thought students were good at that but I think I could well be wrong. Therefore all considered the Labour party’s manifesto and promises were just put aside. Brexit too was a problem for Labour, the refusal to state their position was taken that they did not know what they wanted to do about it. For any party to indicate that they are not certain how to proceed about an important issue would be a death sentence. And so it proved to be!