Darling urges Sunak to fight recession ‘like a war’
Former chancellor Ali stair Darling has warned the eco - no mice ffectsofc or on avirus could last a decade and urged the UK Government to support businesses and jobs “through to the end” as he likened tackling the coming recession to a war.
Mr Darling, who was Labour’ s chancellor during the 2008 financial crash and subsequent recession, also warned Chancellor R is hi Sunak that turning the taps off on borrowing would incur a massive social cost that would “be with us for generations to come”.
"It’ s a bit like a war ,” he said. “You can’t say halfway through it, well, I’m sorry, we can’ t afford another battleship or any more tanks. You’re in this and you’ve got to see it through .” Mr Darling, speakin go na podcast hosted by web news site Tortoise, said the coming recession should not be dealt with as if it was any other economic downturn.
He warned the full effects of the lockdown earlier this year on the economy were yet to be seen.
“If we don’t do anything, you could be looking at the 1980s and maybe three million people [unemployed],” he said.
“Now that needn’t happen. I would argue very strongly that what needs to happen is that you need to give the regions, particularly in England, give them budgets because they’re much better at knowing what they can get going fairly quickly, whether it’s housing, infrastructure projects and so on. If you do all these things, then you’ ve got some chance of keeping those unemployment totals down.”
He added: “Nothing is inevitable.
"But I’m worried, unless an awful lot is going on behind the scenes in secret – if only it was – I think we are going to be in for a very difficult winter.
“If you don’t spend money – especially at a time like this – the costs in the longer run could be far greater than they would otherwise be.
"So I would urge the present Chancellor to err on the side of doing more to support the economy than he might naturally be inclined to do.”
Mr Darling said the Gover nm en th ad to“get out of the mindset” of not spending money.
"I am very clear that if you do what was practised in the 1930s, actually, when you had a massive recession which became a depression, and you think that the best thing to do is not to incur any more expenditure, in crude terms, the cost will be massive,” he said.
"It won’t just be economic, but it will be social, and it will be with us for generations – and I mean generations – to come.
“We have got to do whatever it takes to support our economy, otherwise you are going to be in for a very, very, very difficult time economically, never
mind the social consequences that will come on the back of that.”
He said times like “this is precisely what governments are for” and that when“things are really bad, only the government is big enough to deal with it”.
“This is a crisis, and it is up the current generation of politicians to rise to it – and, without being indelicate about it, I think they’ve got a job of work to do," he said.
On Sunday, former prime M inister Gordon Brown urged the government to hold a jobs summit amid warnings that up to one million young people could be unemployed within weeks.
The Alliance For Full Employment, launched by Mr Brown, said ministers must set out a joint plan agreed with the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England's city region metro mayors to tackle youth unemployment.
Research for the alliance suggests that 1.5 million young people will need help over the coming year to deal with the increase in unemployment.
Around 60 per cent of redundancies since March have hit the under-25s and the unemployment rate for young men is already more than three times the adult rate, said the report.
MSPS will hold an inquiry into the Scottish Parliament's working practices during the coronavirus pandemic with a view to making permanent changes to its rules.
Holyrood's standards, procedures and public appointments committee will examine procedures over the past seven months and is calling for views to be submitted.
The inquiry will re commend changes to parliamentary standing orders to allow laws to continue to be enacted in future "challenging situations".
It will also look into the Parliament's ability to scrutinise the work of the Scottish Government in the context of Covid-19.
Much of Holyro o d's busi - ness has moved online since the onset of the virus, with committees held virtually and MSPS able to join sessions in the chamber by video link.
Committee convener Bill Kidd said :" The past seven months have seen extraordinary changes to the working practices of the Scottish Parliament- changes that had to be made urgently through absolute necessity.
"This inquiry will seek to evaluate the effectiveness of Holyro o d's recent working practices and review our capacity to scrutinise the government and to hold it to account during this time of crisis.
"Our intention will be to make procedural re comme nd at ions that promote the future resilience of the Parliament."