There is much panic at the moment amongst politicians.......

		Francis Sealey August 18 at 6:41am
There is much panic at the moment amongst politicians of the centre. They see a new and major challenge to their economic orthodoxy. Like all defenders of the faith they attack others saying their policies will not work but the truth is that it is their policies that now seem bankrupt and unworkable. The centrists tell us that only they can run a successful economy and create the growth that will protect the people they claim to care for but recent decades demonstrate a different story. Joseph Stiglitz the Nobel prize winning economist has written a book on "The Great Divide" and he makes it clear that "US research showed that all the economic gains since the early 1980s had gone to the top 10%. “The bottom 90% of the economy has seen stagnation for a third of a century and similar trends – not as bad – are at play elsewhere. It’s just very hard to say these centre-left parties – with emphasis on ‘centre’ – have been able to deliver for most people. Their economic models have not delivered and their message is not working." Recently he spoke at The Arts Club on Dover Street saying, “I am not surprised at all that there is a demand for a strong anti-austerity movement around increased concern about inequality. The promises of New Labour in the UK and of the Clintonites in the US have been a disappointment.” The centre parties have failed the litmus paper test which measures how successful they have been in creating well being for all their peoples. Rather than making a more just and equitable society they have managed economies that have become more unequal, where the rich have got richer at the expense of the poor and middle class and where as a result political instability has grown at an alarming rate. When history is written, the epoch of centre politics will go down as one of the most disastrous in recent decades - a time when opportunities were lost and when politicians gave up on their responsibility to their electorates in return for short term personal gain and political office. It really is time for a change. http://www.penguin.co.uk/books/the-great-divide/9780241202906/ The Great Divide by Joseph Stiglitz www.penguin.co.uk Why has inequality increased in the Western world - and what can we do about it? In The Great Divide...