‘Keynesian’ Darling should stand up for Scots

SO ALISTAIR Darling claims to be “an unashamed Keynesian” (Insight, 19 February), which presumably means that he agrees with the vast majority of economists who accepted Keynes’ economic theory on the need to intervene in the free market which he put forward in his General Theory in 1936, and which subsequent real historical events proved to be correct.

Why anyone should feel ashamed to accept the clear logic, and practical evidence of Keynes’ theory he does not explain. Perhaps what he means is that in the Westminster Treasury being a Keynesian is frowned upon, and that was why he was not a Keynesian when in office and was threatening cuts greater than the Friedmanite Thatcher.

To describe Hayek as a “great economist” comparable with Keynes is nonsense. Friedrich Hayek and his associate Milton Friedman, were akin to flat earth believers who refused to accept the real evidence which confirmed Keynes’ theory, and who years later, in 1970, emerged from obscurity to provide the “intellectual” support for the murderer Pinochet before returning to obscurity after economic failure.

If, however, Darling does now accept a Keynesian approach to the current economic problems in the Western world, then in addition to condemning the present UK Government’s anti-Keynesian policies, he should be condemning the present Labour Party’s anti-Keynesian policies, and giving strong support for the SNP Government’s efforts to follow a Keynesian strategy in Scotland. He will know that to succeed in this the SNP Government will need full fiscal autonomy and he should be advocating this right now in order to help the Scottish people.

Or does Alistair believe that the Scottish people, along with the rest of the UK, should be denied economic development for a number of years, and suffer great deprivation so as to help Labour to win the next UK general election.

George Osborne claims, as Thatcher did, that “there is no alternative”. Alistair Darling knows that there is indeed a much better alternative which will save millions of people from dire hardship and will brighten the lives of many. He knows also that the Scottish Government are trying to implement such a policy but need further economic powers from Westminster, so why is he refusing to help his own people?

Andy Anderson, Dunoon