Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I can see you are even more confused than I thought. I don't think anyone disagrees with your statement. Are you arguing with yourself?

I would add to those 'absolute statements of fact' that the deficit has been reduced significantly and it was covering that deficit that has led to the increase in the national debt.

I would further add that Labour did not cause the world-wide financial crisis. Of course they didn't. But they are responsible for the failure to prudently keep money aside for emergencies. Had they done so (and not spent all the proceeds from the sale of our gold reserves), there would have been no need for the austerity that the Conservatives had to impose to avoid sinking with the likes of Greece.

These, too, are factual statements that give your factual statements a bit of context.

I am sure that there will be arguments galore about this during the election campaign, and around in circles we shall go.

---------- Post added at 19:16 ---------- Previous post was at 19:01 ----------





Well, you would say that, wouldn't you? But wait a minute, did you actually miss the most significant admission of Labour's ineptitude in this piece? Even the author had to admit:

One argument is that if the UK had run a balanced budget in the 2000s, public sector debt would have been lower and the UK would have had more room for manoeuvre in pursuing expansionary fiscal policy when the recession hit and we needed expansionary fiscal policy.

There is some credence to this, with a balanced budget and lower public sector debt to start with, governments may have felt greater confidence to borrow even more in the recession – when the UK economy needed expansionary fiscal policy.

Thank you for the confirmation of what I have been saying all this time.