As his cash-register rings out tomorrow, don’t imagine largesse will repair the damage done in the last decade: every citizen has lost 25% in public spending. Restoring growth and jobs is the only hope for economic salvation, so this is the time to borrow and spend without flinching. Keynes would say spend, spend, spend for the next three years to pump-prime growth, as does the IFS director, Paul Johnson: and once growth returns, tax rises will be more effective than spending cuts. This government is not the one to open the great debate on spending and taxation that the country needs. This is not the leadership to build a social infrastructure made by and for people in worthwhile jobs.

Source: The Guardian November 24, 2020 06:00 UTC