I watched a couple of videos by Dan Mitchell this morning. They’re here and here for those who really want to share the experience.

Dan hates big government.

Cameron made it his theme yesterday.

So let’s paraphrase Mitchell who said:

George W Bush made the massive mistake of thinking when someone was hurting it was the government's responsibility to help

Then there’s historical revisionism:

Under Hoover and Roosevelt we got big government spending. This cause twelve years of economic downturn.

So he ignores the recession that preceded this and the enormous success of Roosevelt in tackling it.

And the twelve years of economic downturn post 1933? Might they include the second world war, maybe?

But what after that? Apparently we got a forty year economic disaster after 1933 because of big government.

So let’s examine some facts. From 1950 to 1973 there were no recessions. Not one. From 1980 to date (when neo-liberalism has reigned) there have been five. The 1950s and 1960 were the American dream years. Here people “had never had it so good”. But anti-government fanatics — conservatives to their core — now say this was a disastrous time.

So they hate economic growth created by government creating the right environment in which it can happen and they hate government helping people.

In fact, they just hate.

It’s attractive, isn’t it?