Am I alone in thinking that politicians of all flavours still seem to be missing something about the economy?

Forget all the crap you’ve been told about economics, which only follows rules when studied using hindsight, the current world economy is an oil-based economy. The discovery, extraction, delivery, processing, production, transport, sale, consumption, affects everything we touch. Think about the creation of ships, rigs, aircraft, vehicles, computers, electronics, plastic packaging, machine tools, roofing tiles, bricks, concrete, toilet paper, to name a few things. To create these things we need oil, either to generate the power or as an ingredient for the component or the wrapper. So let’s not hide our heads in the sand, it was the shocking rise in oil prices that triggered the credit crunch in the first place. Anyone else remember?

Sure you can reduce VAT which, if people spend the same amount of money, will create 2.5% more sales, if all other things stay the same. Worth a try I’d say and better than saying just leave it to sort itself out.

However, governments need to sort out part of our oil-based economy and take another look at transport. So far they have ignored this sector and nothing currently planned is going to help. Maybe it is a good thing we sold all our car companies to foreigners, as they are now faced with keeping those companies going. Do we care, should we care, well yes of course we should. There are still thousands of people in this country who are employed making parts, assembling, finishing, selling, repairing and maintaining and let’s not forget using transport, especially private transport.

Here’s a thought for our government, let’s reverse the planned massive hikes in road tax. People have heard the message and know it is coming, but the transport industry needs a much longer period to provide a range of vehicles in line with our green aspirations. While I’m on with that can we divide car consumption by the number of seats and therefore passengers, to get a figure that compares vehicle efficiency please? So short term, stop tax increase on cars to try to get car sales started again, which means getting second-hand sales going again as well. Yes to the VAT cut, which will have an impact on fuel costs. Well done on helping the banks (a bit slow to follow my ideas on buying shares and a pity to have ruined Northern Rock by not doing so).

BUT don’t wait too long before doing this or it will get worse as the credit crunch did! Come on Gordon, oil the wheels and get us going again.

AND we really do need to start planning for alternatives to the rule of oil, or we are going to see the mother of all depressions some years in the future.