I've decided to vote Liberal Democrat in the forthcoming 2010 British General Election.
I'm giving my reasons in six posts. The first one was here. Now...
Reason 5: The Economy
I can't begin to judge who is right in all these virulent exchanges between the politicians on what to do about the economy, how to deal with the deficit, how to protect jobs, and how to protect public services. The economists can't seem to agree either, which suggests that laymen probably shouldn't be setting themselves up as arbiters here.
However, several years before the crisis struck I remember hearing Vince Cable of the Liberal Democrats explaining the dangers of rampant consumer debt and the dangers of bank behaviour. He might not be right about everything, as he admits himself, but I'd much rather have someone like Vince in charge of the economy than the arrogant politicians who neither predicted the crisis nor acknowledged that they could have done things differently.
I also believe that it is the more consensual approach to politics proposed by the Liberal Democrats that will help eradicate the current unfairnesses in the taxation system and the education budget and help find a solution to the problem of funding care for an aging population.
