Fiscal collapse

For all its faults, the European Commission is quite good at polling and economic analysis. And its diagnosis for the UK is even worse than some of the papers write up this morning. For CoffeeHousers who are sitting down, here are a few of its most depressing points. I added the OECD, which includes other developed countries which lack the EU’s problems:

Brown has reached his goal, and this (for the left) is not to be sniffed at: state spending will be more than half of UK GDP. But he could not do this by increasing government revenue, as taxpayers would not abide it. So he has used borrowing instead, leaving the UK with a fiscal crisis to resolve. From the Commission’s report:

And, yes, this does mean the last time Britain balanced its budget was 2000/01. David Cameron talked about Labour’s debt crisis today, rather than a global recession. He’s right to do so: Britain’s deficit will be three times the size of even Italy’s.