The Bank of England’s decision to cut interest rates is an acknowledgment that the UK economy is in a far worse condition that Gordon Brown makes out. It’s so important, because he’s getting away with murder. His skill was not in managing the economy well, but in making people believe it had been managed well. Here are some brief points.
What boom? People who say the economy has boomed under Labour tend to live in London. The OECD figures (table 1, excel file) show that most developed countries had better growth than the UK since 1997. Do they all have a Gordon Brown figure claiming credit? We’ve actually been the worst economic performer in the English-speaking world.
Outrageous deficit. At the top of the economic cycle we should have a Clinton-style surplus. But Brown’s fiscal incontinence means we have the biggest deficit in Western Europe.
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