Thursday, February 14, 2013

Joseph Stiglitz: Nobel prize-winning economist buys into the falsehood that Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon stand up for the poor and disadvantaged, the SNP don’t plan wealth distribution, Salmond’s a false Prophet about to take a loss


















Dear All

Professor Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel prize-winning economist.

That means he is highly thought of and smart, what he isn‘t familiar with is how politics in Scotland operates.

He has helped draw up Alex Salmond's fiscal and economic blueprint for independence.

Because no one in the Scottish National Party was capable of doing so in their 80 year history!

He opines that Scottish economic growth would suffer unless the country broke away from the UK pattern of growing inequality.

Independence will not cure growing inequality, to suggest otherwise is naïve in the extreme, maybe Stiglitz has been told the Scottish National Party leadership stand for fairness, equality and social justice.

That isn’t true, I thought it did but events showed me the true nature of the Scottish National Party under the leadership of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon.

Helping the poor isn’t on their radar.

Free prescriptions for billionaires and millionaires!

Council tax freezes for billionaires and millionaires!

That is the reality of these ‘social democrats’.

Alex Salmond isn’t planning wealth distribution, to suggest that there is some plan to do so, is fantasy.

The Salmond/Sturgeon clique is a poor man’s New Labour MK2, which has peaked, Salmond’s popularity rating used to stand at +35, now it is down to +7.

People and particularly women don’t trust him.

Professor Joseph Stiglitz served on the Fiscal Commission and its working group under Chairman Crawford Beveridge, so he is Salmond’s creature, his opinion of Scottish nirvana isn’t going to happen.

The Fiscal Commission this week came out and said that an independent Scotland would be better within a Sterling zone to flourish.

And given the Westminster is making clear that it wouldn’t play the SNP’s game, nothing is guaranteed by the SNP Govt.

Less we forget, the SNP want the financial sector to be regulated by London, interest rates set by London, so Scots will not have control of all the levers.

Inequality is here to stay because Salmond and Sturgeon don’t have a growth plan.

Stiglitz warned Britain faces a living standards crisis, with millions of households failing to regain the losses they suffered during the downturn.

And so does the US, an independent country, which rather makes his claim less watertight on factual matters which might occur in the future.

Office for National Statistics figures shows pay rises have been outstripped by inflation, with average earnings back to 2003 levels of £11.21 per hour.

Kevin Stewart, an SNP member of Holyrood's Welfare Reform Committee, said:

"Economic growth and prosperity are undermined by high rates of income inequality, leaving us all worse off as a result. Addressing this growing and worrying trend should be a priority for any government."

So, let’s put things in perspective for a moment, on the bedroom tax which lately the SNP have become ‘angry’ about (well might raise indy support), what’s their plan to help those involved?

The answer is nothing.

Maybe Stiglitz has bought into Salmond as a Prophet, but the reality is that he is a false Prophet and he is about to take a loss.

False Prophet…….. loss!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

2 comments:

Paul said...

Absolute nonsense. No facts at all.

You start with the assumption that the nobel prize winner is "highly thought of and smart", something which must have been considered when the Scottish Government asked him to draft up these proposals, but then you basically call him an idiot for the next 510 words, in which your atrocious writing style spuriously undermines all of your intentions.

Anonymous said...

SNP complain long and hard on benefit issues, latest is the "bedroom tax" but not a mention if they'll continue with it or bin it.
This is their weakness, not a strategy in sight.
Give the electorate some detail, ON ANYTHING! I'm looking forward to being drenched in this milk and honey we are all promised.