Douglas Carswell's Blog

Why public spending never goes down

Sir Nicholas Macpherson, top civil servant at the Treasury, yesterday admitted to a Commons committee that under the previous administration government spending ran out of control.

Is it not an extraordinary admission? If he knew that at the time, why the devil did he not come and tell MPs about it? Rather than 'fess up to the old figures during the new regime, why not raise the matter with legislators under the earlier?

You only need to ask the question to see that those we vote for at election time no longer really decide how our taxes are spent.

MPs rubber stamp budgets, amid much tribal cheering. But real scrutiny of spending and decision-making over estimates has gone.

Until we allow select committees to veto annual departmental budgets presented to them by the Sir Nicholas', public spending will never actually fall.

Only the executive is able to rein in government spending. Unsurprisingly, it continues to rise - even under this one.

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