Cuts and Talking

One of the bizarre elements of the recent general election was the refusal of any front line politician to answer questions about what, if in charge, they would cut. Last year at the party conferences Osborne talked of an Age of Austerity and Clegg warned of Savage Cuts. Both spoke the truth and both were warned to rein in this candour as dawning truth downed poll ratings. Now the election is over. Both are in Government. The truth will at last start to unfold with the identification of the pinprick £6 billion next Monday.

Much has been made complicated of a simple set of problems. Even at the weekend distinguished economists were warning of ‘talking down the ecomomy’. Sadly the power of talking, for whatever purpose, has waned. To the fore is simple book keeping at the economic level of the traditional housewife. First you cannot spend above your income without borrowing. If you borrow more than you can afford to pay back you go bust. If the interest you pay on your borrowings absorbs your income you starve. Talking, up, down, backwards on in many tongues has nothing whatever to do with any of it.