Gordon Brown has said as plain as plain can be that he will refuse to take a penknife, let alone an axe, to public spending after the next election. Labour’s indecisive Hamlet has resolved on action at last. In defiance of his chancellor’s own budget arithmetic, he will fight the next general election on the theme of “Tory cuts” versus “Labour investment”.
Is there method in his madness? For despite his Guardian interview on Saturday, he’s not prepared to retire and become a modest teacher. Perhaps he fears Tory education cuts.
Late last year, it was the prime minister who scored points with his accusation that David Cameron and George Osborne advocated voodoo economics. Labour claimed to be part of the great consensus of western governments that had decided to pump money into the economy to save us from a new Great Depression. Briefly the Tory lead wobbled.
Now the tables have been turned. It’s Brown who appears isolated. Every independent, non-partisan authority from the Institute for Fiscal Studies to the International Monetary Fund tells him he’s living in cloud-cuckoo-land: debts must be repaid or taxes will have to rise.
Read Full Article »