Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Either debt goes up, or goes down. It really is that simple.

Last night, I appeared on an hour-long phone in on Five Live listening in amazement as Angela Smith and Barry Gardiner defended Brown. You’d be amazed the lines the Labour MPs are being sent out with: that the shallow media is personality-based, but real people know that Brown did a great job on the economy. Seriously. That Brown’s fiscal decisions have somehow saved us all – rather than bankrupted us all. They are suggesting that the idea of 9% Labour cuts was a Treasury speculation, when it is a hard plan contained in the Budget. They are claiming that Brown is hailed around the world as a genius – and pointing as evidence to that hilarious ceremony in New York last week where he was named statesman of the world for his role in the economy (runners up: Fred Goodwin and Nick Leeson). What about that New York Daily News editorial “Brown the Betrayer” and that spectacle of Brown chasing Obama around the UN last week, Benny Hill-style, until he cornered him in the kitchen? What does that say about his international reputation? But there is one point where Smith did stretch from exaggeration into lies, and I’d like to correct it here.

Smith claimed that Brown “paid down debt” before the recession, thus preparing putting us in a good position to bear it. This, as I told her, is untrue. She protested. I used the L-word. She suggested it wasn’t a lie. I was going to email her with the data (she sounds quite a nice lady, I’m sure she was just misled) but I thought I’d post it on CoffeeHouse instead.

Brown did pay down debt for three years, while he stuck to Tory spending plans, then let rip.

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