Infrastructure: The Roads to Recovery?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 20 October 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Theresa May has promised new trains, faster broadband and improved infrastructure. Critics accused her of adopting Labour Party politics. But is it left-wing to invest in infrastructure?
During the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes encouraged governments to dig holes until the economy was restored. The explosion of building in 1930s America is often seen as Keynes' words in action - but the New Deal was not as straightforward as we may think. The Economist's Soumaya Keynes finds out what really happened.
After the 2008 crisis, politicians turned to Keynes' ideas once again. First Ed Miliband, then George Osborne and now Theresa May have pledged to build us out of trouble. How has this idea moved across the political spectrum - and could traffic lights and bridges really solve our economic woes?
Joining David Aaronovitch in the Briefing Room are: Sir John Armitt, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers Michelle Baddeley, Professor of Economics and Finance at University College London Tim Worstall, Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute
Researcher: Jordan Dunbar Producer: Hannah Sander.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Our stock of public infrastructure. |
| 0:02.6 | The need to make big decisions on and invest in our infrastructure. |
| 0:06.9 | Recently, everyone seems to be talking about infrastructure. |
| 0:10.7 | Continue to invest in cutting edge infrastructure. |
| 0:13.3 | Roads, railways, flood defences. |
| 0:15.0 | A new infrastructure commission, he announced, to speed up major projects like roads, railways. |
| 0:20.4 | Roads, railways, airports, airports, airport capacity, |
| 0:23.0 | power stations, waste facilities, broadband networks. All of this must change. Why are politicians |
| 0:29.6 | putting infrastructure so high on the agenda? Could traffic lights and new bridges, rather than |
| 0:36.1 | austerity, be the answer to our economic uncertainties? |
| 0:40.4 | Step with me into the briefing room and we'll try and find out. |
| 0:46.8 | Joining me in the briefing room to tell us about infrastructure, our Sir John Armit, president of the |
| 0:52.1 | institution of civil engineers, Michelle Baddeley, Professor |
| 0:55.4 | of Economics and Finance at University College London, and Tim Worstall, Senior Fellow at the |
| 1:00.8 | Adam Smith Institute. |
| 1:02.5 | But first, I'm joined by Summaia Keynes, economics correspondent for the economists. |
| 1:07.4 | Simea, when Theresa May talked in her party conference speech about infrastructure spending, |
| 1:12.3 | some of her own MPs turned round and said, whoa, she's gone all Keynesian. |
| 1:16.4 | Now, you're going to tell us what that actually means. |
| 1:20.0 | It might seem like what she was saying was that by spending lots of money on infrastructure and investment, |
| 1:25.4 | she was hoping to boost the economy. |
| 1:27.5 | And this would be echoing the ideas of John Maynard Keynes, who was a famous economist, who was around in the 1930s. |
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