Video: Hugh Hendry on UK growth prospects on BBC’s QuestionTime

Here’s a good town hall-style video featuring Simon Schama and Hugh Hendry on BBC QuestionTime. The ever-combative Hendry gave his opinion on the prospects for the UK economy going forward from the Austerian viewpoint. He said that he doubts whether the private sector has the dynamism to carry the country forward economically as the government sector contracts. In his view, debt is the central factor which makes this economic environment unique and which will restrain growth going forward. That said, he does not believe government should step in to mitigate the impediment to growth which deleveraging entails. In effect, this means he favours a deflationary outcome regardless of the short-term effects on economic growth because he believes that it will lead to a more sustainable base for future economic activity once the deleveraging has occurred.

The first main clip runs about 7 minutes. Other videos follow below.

In this video, Hendry talks about the loss of fiscal levers in Ireland. However, his response misses the mark because Ireland’s problem has more to do with the Euro than it does with the deficit.

The next clip has to do with Boris Johnson’s comments on ‘sociological cleansing’regarding the coalition government’s plans on housing subsidies.

This last video is about a question from the audience asking whether David Cameron should follow in the Iron Lady’s steps, wielding his metaphorical handbag instead of rubber-stamping the EU budgets. Certainly, this question relates to paying for bail outs of the euro zone periphery, which is becoming a contentious issue given the German proposal to change the EU Treaties to be able to do so. Remember the British, the Danes and the Swedish are not in the euro zone and may still have to pay for the problematic structure of the european experiment. Hendry suggests that the EU budget should be frozen in an environment in which individual states like Spain and Greece are undergoing austerity.

Source: Liar Politicians, You Tube