Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has accepted 'some responsibility' for the state of Britain's economy.

Mr Blair also admitted he had not fully understood the impact economic integration would have.

But he also said a 'vibrant' financial sector was important for the UK, an apparent warning to Labour party leader Ed Miliband who wants Britain's banks dramatically reined in.

"In respect of the economy, yes, of course, everybody who was in power in the period bears a certain responsibility," he told Sky News' Dermot Murnaghan.

Asked if that meant Labour did not fully understand it while he was in power, Mr Blair replied: "No, we didn't."

news.sky.com/story/963534/blair-admits-s...onsiblity-on-economy

Ed Balls has a first class honours degree in Economics from Oxford. Gideon (i.e. George Osbourne) has no qualifications in economics. Who would you employ for the job as Chancellor?

Most certainly not Ed 'Mr Sanctimonious' Balls

How conveniently we, and Sky, so easily forget just the day-before-yesterday, pre-B-liar/Brown 18 yrs with multiple catastrophic financial 'Balls'-ups under supposed 'expert' Fraud-Marketeer Tories (no names needed).

1. Huge BCCI-bank failed;
2. Vast UK Dairy Industry destroyed by false economy foul-feed/aptly named 'Mad Cow Disease';
3. Historic Lloyds Of London failed;
4. Historic Barings Bank failed (by made-scapegoat
5. Leeson trying to save it's false-economy regime);
6. Black Monday £Sterling devalued all but destroyed;
7. Huge Channel Tunnel private enterprise project an unrepayable financial failure, UK Banks bailed out by £9Billion in public-funds...
8. UK Oil & Gas £200 Billion largely wasted funding Tory-planned vast unemployment payments with UK industries sold-off cheap overseas (efficient Deutschland now largely owns Iconic UK Cars Plc;
9. Ex-public UK utilities privatised for Profit NOT Service, e.g. London 'Leccy now owned by French EDL - "Son et Lumiere, Lights-Out-Londre);

and, er, counting ?

As, unlikely source, foretold by traditional Olde Labour Scots soccer hardman, Tommmy 'The Doc' Docherty Man Utd manager, sold out by directors in the mid-1970s,
" Historically, and now, accountants know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing !"

So what is your angle ?

Are we meant to take Mr Blair seriously or not?

As for a 'vibrant financial sector" , we have certainly had that much to our despair.

Brian wrote:
Most certainly not Ed 'Mr Sanctimonious' Balls

Indeed ... if he has a degree he could start with explaining economics to his paymasters, the Unions (for it is they, ratther than ANY government that has wiped out more jobs than anyone else).

Er, perhaps check someone 'In The Know'?

TRUE BRIT ex-WW2 flying officer, (UK right-wing/majority media feared, marginalised and misrepresented) veteran Labour ex-M.P. TONY BENN:

" As a minister, I experienced the power of industrialists and bankers to get their way by use of the crudest form of economic pressure, even blackmail, against a Labour Government. Compared to this, the pressure brought to bear in industrial disputes is minuscule. This power was revealed even more clearly in 1976 when the IMF secured cuts in our public expenditure. These lessons led me to the conclusion that the UK is only superficially governed by MPs and the voters who elect them. Parliamentary democracy is, in truth, little more than a means of securing a periodical change in the management team, which is then allowed to preside over a system that remains in essence intact. If the British people were ever to ask themselves what power they truly enjoyed under our political system they would be amazed to discover how little it is, and some new Chartist agitation might be born and might quickly gather momentum. "

Benn has topped several polls as the most popular politician in Britain. He has been described as 'one of the few UK politicians to have become more left-wing after holding ministerial office.' Since leaving Parliament, Benn has become involved in the grass-roots politics of demonstrations and meetings, and has been the President of the Stop the War Coalition for the last decade. He has been a vegetarian since the 1970s.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn

www.inthesetimes.com/article/12510/tony_...e_from_labours_left/

FullFacts wrote:
Er, perhaps check someone 'In The Know'?

TRUE BRIT ex-WW2 flying officer, (UK right-wing/majority media feared, marginalised and misrepresented) veteran Labour ex-M.P. TONY BENN:


Err ... as Benn was once my MP - I've had many a drink(*) with him (and his now departed wife Caroline).

Nice man - good constituency MP, only "loony" nationally !

(*) Benn is tee-total and only drinks orange juice.

The postwar Westminster Colossus, BIG-Benn.

Only 'loony' nationally in the minds of knee-jerk, 'Raving Right' wrong uns, a mainstream Mafia with Mob Rule rabble of media-mugged 'Loonies!"

Lol(not 'Loon').