An end to boom and bust

In their own words:

Gordon Brown: July 1997

"Today, the Bank of England has agreed with me that, if we are to prevent the cycle of boom and bust, inflationary pressures in the economy, which the previous Government negligently failed to tackle, must be brought under control"


Tony Blair: 1997 Conference Speech

"I want this to be the New Labour Government that ended Tory boom and bust forever."


Gordon Brown: November 1997

"I am satisfied that the new monetary policy arrangements will deliver long-term price stability, and prevent a return to the cycle of boom and bust."


Gordon Brown: April 1998

"We will not return to the stop-go, boom-bust years which we saw under the Conservatives."


Gordon Brown: May 1998

"The Government have put in place policies to deliver that objective and are determined to avoid a return to boom and bust."


Gordon Brown: June 1998

"...rigorous financial discipline that, together with monetary stability, ends once and for all the boom and bust that for 30 years has undermined stability"


Gordon Brown: November 1998

"Britain was set to repeat the boom-bust cycle that led to 15 per cent. interest rates for one whole year in the early 1990s."


Tony Blair: November 1998

"...examine the legacy that we inherited and what we did. We had boom-and-bust economics and a doubled national debt."


Tony Blair: February 1999

"Moreover, for decades we have been prone to far greater swings in the economic cycle than our continental counterparts. It has been boom and bust....Under this Government, there is an entirely new framework for economic management in place"


Tony Blair: November 1999

"We have the best chance of ending boom and bust in years."


Gordon Brown: November 1999

"Indeed, Britain was set to repeat the old, familiar cycle of boom and bust. Since then, we have created and rigorously adhered to a new framework of modern economic management"


Ruth Kelly: November 1999

"The Government have rejected the boom and bust of the Conservative party"


Alistair Darling: January 2000

"On top of that, we have a healthy and stable economy and an end to the boom and bust that characterised the Tory years."


Alan Johnson: February 2000

"The Government's first priority on coming to office was to secure long-term economic stability and put an end to the damaging cycle of boom and bust."


Gordon Brown: March 2000

"Britain does not want a return to boom and bust."


Tony Blair: 2000 Conference Speech

"The first big choice: a government with the strength to deliver stability, or a government that takes the country back to boom and bust."


Gordon Brown: November 2000

"Our approach is to reject the old vicious circle of the '80s--rising debt, higher long-term interest rates, higher debt repayment costs, lower growth, higher unemployment, then enforced cuts in public spending. That was the old boom and bust."


Gordon Brown: March 2001

"We will not return to boom and bust."


Ruth Kelly: May 2002

"We must avoid a return to the days of boom and bust that manufacturers had to endure for a long time under the Conservatives."


Tony Blair: November 2003

"If we want to contrast what we have done in the past few years on delivery with what the right hon. and learned Gentleman delivered, let us remember the interest rates at 10 per cent. to 15 per cent., the 1.5 million fewer people in work, the boom and the bust and the borrowing at 8 per cent. of GDP."


Yvette Cooper: May 2004

"We know that they want to turn the clock back, but it would be foolish to turn it back to a policy of boom and bust."


John Prescott: January 2005

"Labour economic stability has replaced Tory boom and bust"


Alistair Darling: March 2005

"As I said, there are two approaches—first, a strong economy, stability and helping families or, secondly, the Tory cuts, the undermining of stability, and a return to the boom and bust of the 1990s."


Tony Blair: 2005 Conference Speech

"In the first two terms we corrected the weaknesses of the Tory years: boom-and-bust economics"


Gordon Brown: March 2006

"I have said before: no return to boom and bust."


Douglas Alexander: June 2006

"...there are genuine questions to be asked about why we now have the highest level of employment in many decades, contrary to the position during the boom-bust years of the Conservatives."


Tony Blair: 2006 Conference Speech

"In 1997, we faced daunting challenges. Boom and bust economics..... Now, for all that remains to be done, dwell for a moment on what has been achieved."


Gordon Brown: December 2006

"Boom and bust is a term that applied to the Conservative years and two of the worst recessions in history"


Gordon Brown: March 2007

"We will not return to the old boom and bust"


Alistair Darling: June 2007

"...acknowledges the outstanding performance of the economy under this Government with the longest unbroken economic expansion on record, in contrast to the boom and bust of the previous Government"


Hmmm...


Thanks to Daniel Finkelstein in The Times online for the quotations, albeit in a different order.