Last week, the ONS revealed that the UK economy is most likely in recession. And today Charles Bean, the new deputy governor of the Bank of England, warns that that downturn could “drag on for some considerable time”.
Every scrap of gloom adds weight to the argument – resurrected over the weekend – that the Tories can no longer stand by their “sharing the proceeds of growth” formula, and that they should think seriously about pledging to cut spending. Following Lord Forsyth and John Redwood, Trevor Kavanagh gives his support to that argument in today’s Sun. Here’s the key passage:
Their incoherent promise to “share the proceeds of growth” looks even more ridiculous with no growth to share.
Why on earth does David Cameron stick to his pledge to match Labour’s discredited spending promises?
There is no money for these wasteful and frequently misguided ideas.
You don’t have to be “nasty” to say that Brown’s socialist experiment has been tested to destruction.
Honest Labour MPs admit the Government has made a hash of every big spending department — health, education, welfare, transport.
Billions have been squandered on projects which failed the people who paid for them — the taxpayer.
Even those intended to benefit most, poor children and the elderly, have lost out.
The gainers, at the expense of future generations — are the freshly-bloated army of Government workers on big pay and gold-plated pensions.
A proper audit would swiftly reveal huge potential savings.
“Cuts” is no longer a dirty word, whether pruning worthless spending or putting more money back into taxpayers’ pockets.
Almost anyone — even Brown — could have kept Britain prosperous in the last 16 “fat years” of growth and low inflation.
It will be a long time before we see sunny days like those again — without some tough decisions.
These are tough times. We need realistic politicians who are prepared to say so AND spell out what they are going to do about it.
This is an issue that it makes no political, nor fiscal, sense for the Tory leadership to ignore. The safe bet is that we’ll hear something from Osborne at the forthcoming party conference.
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