LABOUR'S ECONOMIC INCOMPETENCE

Ken Clarke our Business Spokesman has said “We have been arguing for months that it is only the prospect of a Conservative victory that has been holding down interest rates and holding up sterling. This has been a very fragile position. Yesterday's and today's market movements show how nervous our foreign creditors and investors are about the prospects of a Gordon Brown victory or a hung parliament.”
The argument from a British point of view is if investors do not believe the new British Government has the political will to deal with the deficit and pay down some debt they will demand much higher interest rates before they will lend us any more money. It's a perfectly straightforward argument.
George Osborne first warned that a devalued pound could push up long-term interest rates in November of 2008. George said then: "The more you borrow as a government, the more you have to sell that debt - And the less attractive your currency seems."
This is not because of plain speaking from the Opposition, but because the markets could take fright over the prospect of the irresponsible, profligate Gordon Brown government somehow hanging onto office for another five years.
Last thing I want is the Government of this country to be at the mercy of the bond markets or international finance. That's the position Gordon Brown has put us in. We run that risk because Gordon Brown has left our country with the biggest budget deficit in peacetime history, borrowing one pound for every four we spend. I want to live in a democracy which elects a Government that regains control of events and has the mandate from the electorate to take the tough and necessary decisions. Voters must not elect themselves into a financial crisis.
In plain terms, no one should doubt that a Cameron Government will cut wasteful public spending, keep taxes as low as possible and get rid of the bulk of the structural public deficit in the lifetime of the next Parliament.