The disaster which has been Labour's economic policy over 11 years is beyond my simple capacity to fully explain.The best I can do is to point out that the government - like all centre left administrations - has spent money it does not have; has wasted money on non-productive areas such as quangos and bureaucracy; has vastly increased the tax burden - mainly by stealth; it has increased public spending; has gifted away our gold reserves; has allowed the economy to sag because of EU membership; has borrowed heavily and has got into the kind of muddle which will require a tax-raising budget of frightening proportions to remedy.
If Mr Darling chickens out on this - as he may well do for purely electoral reasons - there will have to be spending cuts of great significance which will anger the leftwingers who currently infest parliament. Caught twixt two stools - either anger the electorate or infuriate the backbenchers.
Against the backcloth of a world recession, which seems ever closer after yesterday's announcements from Wall St, the option of doing nothing is NOT an option.
Perhaps Mr Darling should thank Gordon warmly for the poisoned chalice he has received.
The link below is an article by Peter Oborne which I strongly recommend.
[Blair did well to get out when he did, wouldn't you agree?]
LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=528618&in_page_id=1772&in_author_id=382&in_check=N
