Cameron dumps Labour spending plans

I wrote earlier that David Cameron needed to do more to to outline how the Tories will respond to the fiscal and economic downturn.  He just has.  In a keynote speech, the Tory leader announced that his party will ditch their commitment to match Labour spending plans for 2010/11.  The emphasis now, as he put it, is on building a low tax, low debt, low interest rate economy

Now, this marks a massive strategic shift for the Cameroons.  To all intents and purposes, the nebulous “sharing the proceeds of growth” concept has been jettisoned.  The emphasis now is on cutting back the size of the state and, one assumes, using the funds to bring down national debt and reduce the tax burden.  There have been numerous calls for this course of action over the past few months – as well as evidence that it might prove popular with the public – but Cameron & Co. have shied away from it for fear of Brown’s “Tory cuts vs Labour investment” mantra.  No longer.  The battle line has been well-and-truly drawn.  And, in the end, I guess it’s better late than never.

P.S.  If Cameron needs some inspiration for what spending he can cut back on, then he could do worse than read Fraser’s article in this week’s magazine, as well as CoffeeHousers’ comments on this post.