The new Age of Austerity
In a barbed examination of Tory spending plans, Blood & Treasure looks back to the post-war period:
In the original Age of Austerity, we managed to create the National Health Service, keep a million men under arms through conscription, and, in the Tories case, embark on a mass house building programme: all of that with public debt at 250% of GDP, twice that currently projected. Just because you don’t have much money doesn’t mean that you can’t spend what you have more or less how you please.
But to do that you need ideas: Right now, all the Tories are willing to show us in this direction is Michael Gove’s proposal to extend Academy status to primary schools: another Blairite retread and one specifically mounted right now in the hope that people will stop paying attention to the inconveniently popular tax hike on the wealthy.
