Douglas Carswell's Blog

The economy is flat lining

A clutch of organizations have predicted that there will be zero economic growth in the second quarter of the year.

The Keynesians in the Treasury will tell us that if they weren't taxing and spending the way they are thing would be far worse. The Keynesian-ultras, such as Ed Balls, will tell us if only they were taxing and spending even more, we'd be growing.

Perhaps now is the time for the rest of us to junk Keynes - in all forms.

If we want to achieve growth, we need to see economic policy as something more than Keynesian demand management.

Had the government not borrowed to spend the way it has these past two or three years, think of the tax breaks we might have afforded for British business? That 18 percent increase in public debt we've seen since May 2010 could've bought us a lot less tax. How much more productive might we now be?

Think of where our competitive position would be today if we had actually cut red tape, rather than simply talk about it? If government today had the razor like focus on deregulation that it had on supply-side reform in the 1980s, it could be done.

And should we really be running interest rates and inflation in order to stimulate demand?

Despite all the rhetoric of deficit slashing and change, what is most striking about economic policy is the continuity with what went before.

The economy is flat lining. Treasury policy has barely begun to address the sort of reforms we need to make the UK globally competitive again. What are we waiting for?

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