Osbourne speech: Quangoisation is not the answer
28 September 2008
Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas has criticised George Osborne's proposals to outsource oversight of the economy and government finances to the Bank of England and new quangoes, including an Office of Budget Responsibility to "hold government to account". The Greens propose a Green New Deal to restore democratic control to finance and invest in a sustainable economy for the future.Dr Lucas said:
"We are in the middle of a financial crisis caused by a lack of democratic control of the economy, and the Tory response is to marginalise democracy even further. It's what they call 'disaster capitalism' - seizing on an emergency as an excuse to drive through a hard-right ideological agenda.
"The Tories want to outsource oversight of government fiances to a quango they call the Office of Budget Responsibility. But we already have an Office of Budget Responsibility. It's called Parliament.
"We don't need another quango, filled with the same corporate bosses that got us into this mess, with a few Tory donors and ultra-right think-tank wonks for good measure. We need real democratic control of the economy, with power returned from multinationals to parliament and, most importantly, to ordinary people.
"The Tories want to outsource the handling of failed banks, too. When a bank has to be nationalised, it should be dealt with for the benefit of ordinary savers and borrowers, but George Osbourne wants banks handed over to the Bank of England for another dose of the insular City thinking that caused the problem in the first place.
"Under a Green New Deal, banks that failed would be restructured into more, smaller companies, so that any problems they have in the future can be contained without putting the whole economy at risk. High-street banking would be separated from high finance to improve the security of people's savings and mortgages. We would restore some of our lost building societies, which added much-needed stability to the market. We would get finance, and the economy as a whole, working for people rather than distant corporations.
"The Tories want to cut public investment just at the time we need it most. Their attitude is 'you're on your own'. A Green New Deal means government doing its job: investing in keeping our economy healthy and building a sustainable economy for the future.
"By borrowing from the people through local bonds, government can create a secure investment for savers. That would allow us to revamp our public transport, energy supplies and housing, generating jobs, revitalising money flows, loosening ties to unreliable oil markets and cutting carbon emissions."
ENDS
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Notes to editors:
1. The Green New Deal is co-authored by Caroline Lucas, with a group of nine other economists, businesspeople and environmentalists. Taking inspiration from President Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s, it is a joined up response to the 'triple crunch' of financial crisis, peak oil production, and climate change. For more, see: http://tinyurl.com/greennewdeal-nef
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