Grown-up opposition

I follow American politics quite closely. Over in the States, political leaders are grappling with exactly the same economic issues we in Britain face: how to respond positively and effectively to the downturn.

I thought I'd share excerpts of a review from the independent US government publication Congress Daily with you, just to highlight how, over there, the opposition Republicans (the sister party to the Conservatives) are working with the government; whereas over here, the Tories just want to play politics, pretend this is a problem unique to and caused by Britain, and do nothing about the massive threat it represents. Here's the release:

President-elect Obama and Democratic leaders Monday pledged to work with Republicans to pass an economic stimulus package as soon as possible that could provide as much as $1.3 trillion over two years.

"We all recognize that the country is in a financial difficulty that we have never seen - maybe in the history of the country," Senate Majority [Democrat] Leader Reid said after the meeting. "And what we did at the meeting with President-elect Obama just a few minutes ago is to say that we would jointogether and try to move some economic recovery relief for the American people as quickly as possible."

"We have not received, of course, the exact package from the president-elect and his folks, but he has indicated that there are at least 20 economists he has talked with and all but one of those believe it should be from $800 [billion] to $1.2 or [$1.3] trillion," Reid said.

Obama said at a photo opportunity with [House of Representatives Speaker] Pelosi that "The reason we're here today is because the people's business can't wait. We've got an extraordinary economic challenge ahead of us; we're expecting a sobering job report at the end of the week."

At a briefing after the Democratic leaders spoke, Senate Minority [Republican] Leader McConnell and House Minority Leader Boehner, who also attended the meeting, said that they believe Obama's bipartisan gestures to be sincere.

"I think [Obama] would like to have a large bipartisan vote in favor of this package," McConnell said. " I think this bill is going to start out and hopefully end as an example of very significant bipartisan cooperation."

Wouldn't it be nice for the opposition on this side of the pond to behave so maturely, responsibly and constructively, instead of isolating themselves by arguing for the same do-nothing economic approach that did so much damage in the two Tory recessions of the 1980s and 1990s?