Douglas Carswell's Blog

We're all in this together

Reflecting on the fierce medicine being applied to fix our public finances, one marvels at what sort of fools were left in charge of the nation's money this past decade.

And how it was that the rest of us allowed these fiscal clowns not simply to get get away with reckless overspending for so long - but to be revered as great economic gurus as they did so. 

Think of all those professional pundits who spent most of the mid-noughties regurgitating clichés about the so-called "Iron Chancellor".  They should have tried some basic maths instead.   

And then there was the Conservative decision to fight the 2005 election on a promise to recklessly overspend just that little bit less.  Not only was it wrong-headed, it may even have helped create the space for yet more of the fiscal folly that followed.

If Brown and Balls et al are to blame, many others failed to make the case for smaller, less wasteful government.

However difficult it is going to be, it is a good thing that there has been a long overdue outbreak of financial realism.

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