To review or not to review?
Peter Hoskin 11:02am
So will we see a spending review before the next election or not? Peter Mandelson said that we wouldn't, but there are rumblings that his claim wasn't Treasury-sanctioned and that he subsequently called Alistair Darling to apologise for making it. And now today's papers contain two different strands about Darling's own intentions. In the Independent, Andrew Grice claims that the Chancellor is "said to be moving towards a decision to postpone a government-wide spending review until after the election." While the Guardian's Patrick Wintour reports that he is "keeping open the option of a slimmed-down spending review in the autumn in which he will spell out the need for any cutbacks in the government's programmes if the public finances require it."
The two reports may seem contradictory but, to my mind, they're testament to the struggle Darling finds himself caught up in. On one side, there's pressure from the Brown 'n' Balls axis to be misleading about the state of the public finances, and to postpone the spending review indefinitely. And on the other, the dictates of sanity recommend a more honest approach. The resolution of this conflict could be a good litmus test for the strength of Darling's position after the last reshuffle.
In the meantime, though, this leaves a massive opportunity for the Tories. The Government's debt crisis demands far-reaching and bold solutions. What's needed isn't so much a "slimmed-down spending review," but an extensive audit of how, where and why money can be saved. In which case, the Mail story about how George Osborne is preparing a "blueprint" for the public finances rather catches the eye. It should be a main priority for the Tories to set out just how horrendous their inheritance is set be, so that the public are more understanding of the measures that will be necessary to fix it. Watch this space.
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Bob
July 1st, 2009 11:39am Report this commentIf there is no spending review before the next election, will the tories lay the nations' finances bare for all to see if they win the next election?
Once the full scale of the horror is known, would this have a adverse effect on foreign investors? and actually make a future tory government's job harder?
Jeremy
July 1st, 2009 12:50pm Report this commentWho is the Chancellor of the Exchequer these days? Does anybody know?
Is it the bulging-eyed Balls?
Is it Brown - the grey-faced fraud? Is it the serpentine Lord Mandelson? Is it Alistair (The Invisible Man) Darling? Or is it simply all of them, fighting over the role like ferrets inside a sack?
Do, please, enlighten me...
chris
July 1st, 2009 2:03pm Report this commentDarling's behaviour over the next few weeks will show whether he is the useless individual that clearly brown thinks he is.
If Darling is ever going to do anything useful, he will have to make this clear before the summer recess.
JohnOfEnfield
July 1st, 2009 2:13pm Report this commentBrown fiddles while London burns. We plan to spend TWO HUNDRED BILLION POUNDS in excess of our income for each of the next two years.
The market will shortly draw its own conclusion as to what should be done (perhaps in October 2009?). Brown & his acolytes will be swept away in the inevitable storm.
Boudicca
July 1st, 2009 6:44pm Report this commentDarling would do the country an enormous favour if he stood up in Parliament and announced he was going to resign from the Government, but before standing down was going to tell the electorate the truth about the state of the nations finances - and then did it.
It might be the end of his Cabinet career, but he'd go down in History as the only Labour Minister with a shred of decency, honesty and integrity. THAT, surely, would make it worthwhile.
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