Leave aside all this flummery of the EU telling us we\’re naughty boys and look just at this figure:
Britain\’s sins are more serious. The breach has occurred at the top of the cycle when tax revenues should be at their peak. Brussels said there had been a "deterioration of the structural balance of 4.5pc of GDP" since 1999. Brussels said Britain did not qualify under the "exceptional" circumstances clause.
I said yesterday that I don\’t really do macro but even I know that that\’s not quite where we ought to be at the end of 16 years of continuous growth, the longest peacetime expansion since we started keeping accurate records.
Essentially Brown has taken the bounty from the good years and pissed it up against the wall. Now come the lean and we have no corn nor kine to see us through. You\’d have thought a Son of the Manse would have read his Old Testament, wouldn\’t you?
Prudence = Drunken Sailor
Given that, according to the doom-‘n’-gloomists, this is the Worst Year Ever And We’re All Buggered, how does that equate to “at the top of the cycle”? Either this year’s jolly and the budget deficit is irresponsible, or this year’s rubbish and the budget deficit is only to be expected…