June 26, 2017 5.15 pm This story is over 96 months old

Barry Turner: The magic money tree is real after all!

Throughout the election campaign earlier last month we heard several new sound-bites ad-nauseam, several of which came back to ‘bite’ hard their users. The stock answer of Tory politicians to any economic plans of the Labour Party was “where is your magic money tree?” In spite of the disastrous rebound of their other favourite mantra…
After two weeks of talks, the DUP agreed a £1 billion deal to prop up Theresa May in power.

Throughout the election campaign earlier last month we heard several new sound-bites ad-nauseam, several of which came back to ‘bite’ hard their users.

The stock answer of Tory politicians to any economic plans of the Labour Party was “where is your magic money tree?”

In spite of the disastrous rebound of their other favourite mantra “strong and stable government,” the Tories continued using the money tree chant after the catastrophic result of the election.

The weakened and unstable government of Theresa May was left in a position whereby only seven backbenchers would be necessary to defeat proposed legislation, a situation in today’s ‘party whip-free world’ a certainty.

The solution it seems to return us to a strong and stable position whereby Brexit could be achieved was a deal with a party representing one small region of Britain and only a section of that region’s electorate to boot.

To achieve this deal, known as a confidence and supply agreement, the government has pledged £1 billion in extra funding for Northern Ireland.

It goes without saying that some are asking which magic money tree this came from and is there perhaps one for Wales, Scotland and well just about everywhere please?

While it is no doubt happy days for the people of Northern Ireland, it is likely that this will be the start of demands from every other less well off region of Britain.

The government is now in need of a Magic Money Orchard and the trees better get growing fast.

Perhaps we are worrying too much. There has in fact always been a magic money tree and it has thrived since 2008 yielding a bumper crop of some £453 billion.

This money was harvested from the magic tree of quantitative easing, a sound-bite itself that used to mean inflation.

We must hope that it has been properly fertilised and tended by the Conservative and DUP deal because everyone will be wanting a bite of its fruit.

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Barry Turner is a Senior Lecturer in War Reporting and Human Rights and a member of the Royal United Services Institute.