The dangers of high spending
Peter Hoskin 8:51am
The Independent's Hamish McRae - who's been on the money more often than most commentators during this downturn - today outlines the reasons to be wary of a Government spending boom in the PBR. They're worth quoting in full:
"The first is international. Trust is vital and there is a danger of a systemic loss of confidence in British financial management. Already sterling has fallen by as much as it did in 1992 when it was ejected from the ERM. We are going into this downturn with an exceptionally high budget...
It won’t get as much attention as it should because of today’s announcement on spending by the Tories, but Michael Gove’s speech this evening pledging to allow state schools to choose alternative exams to GCSEs and A-Levels is important. It offers a way away from the race to bottom in examination standards that has so bedevilled the education system in recent years. It will also be a genuinely meritocratic reform; no longer will it just be pupils from independent schools who have access to things like the IB, the Pre-U and IGCSES. 
Yvette Cooper doesn’t like Cameron’s announcement that he’d spend less than the £680bn Brown intends to in 2010/11. “Unlike the Conservatives, we refuse to abandon people in tough times. The British economy needs a shot in the arm, not a slap in the face.” Except giving people their money back in tough times – as I suspect Cameron will do with the money he saves – is the very opposite of abandoning them. Does she not think the government will be tightening its belt, as all households in Britain are doing? This is...
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