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Public spending cuts: ineffective, unnecessary, dangerous

September 16th, 2009

Public spending cuts: ineffective, unnecessary, dangerous | ToUChstone blog: A public policy blog from the TUC.

Politics seems to be on a collision course with economics at the moment. With the right-wing press screaming for cuts and the polls showing a majority of voters agreeing, the main parties are now positioning themselves as cutters.

This is not democracy at its best. The arguments against any major and urgent cuts programme are extremely strong but they are now being crowded out by a debate that is shaped by the desire to win the political rather than the economic battles ahead.

Adam Lent argues, with considerable effectivness, against the emerging political concensus that will harm us all.

Richard Murphy Economics, TUC

Comments (1)

alastair

September 16th, 2009 at 14:07 | #1

Reply | Quote

What emerging political concensus is that? I thought the whole point was that there is no political concensus. Brown might have misled us about the implications of his budget statement, but the political dividing lines are very clear. Brown will continue to tax, borrow and spend until the earlier of losing the next election or the IMF boys barging in. Cameron will continue with his strategy of allowing Brown to shoot his own feet until he gets to power, when reality will set in.

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