Fixing the figures
If you need to know why the Chancellor needs to borrow more to invest more the answer is contained in one simple fact.
Jeremy Hunt only made the books balance and borrowing look as if it would start to fall by the end of the 5 year target if he pencilled in cutting public sector investment from 2.4% of GDP to 1.7%.
We were apparently going to green the economy, fix the NHS, repair those schools and build a high tech productive economy by investing far less.
Does anyone really believe that he or the Tory government had any intention of doing this? No, me neither, but it was the only way, despite huge tax hikes of pretending to hit his targets.
That is why Labour has inherited such a mess, the books could not be trusted, the assumptions were farcical and the Tories had no intention of sticking to their plans.
Gordon Brown inherited spending and taxation plans from Kenneth Clark and stuck by them even when Clark admitted he had never intended to. It cost the new Labour government years of lost opportunity.
Rachel Reeves is not bound by the Tories ridiculous figures, but unfortunately she does have to fix them.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
It’s intriguing that Labour put serious economic folk in posts like Chancellor, while the tories have lawyers, salespeople, journalists and so on - yet the tories always take the line that they are the ones to be trusted with the economy. And people fail for their crap, or did …