The only way is down

Tonight’s television news programmes will no doubt be dominated once again by images of Gordon Brown talking up his plans to “invest” huge amounts of taxpayers’ money to ease the pain of the recession.

However, a little bit of reading between the lines will quickly reveal that what in reality the once so-called Iron Chancellor is doing is borrowing more and more cash to pay off the country’s existing debts – debts that he was largely responsible for racking up in the first place.

And you don’t have to be an economist to work out that, as he borrows more to pay off the debts, so the overall national debt will simply continue to grow.

So when and where will this horrendous cycle of economic decline end?

With regard to timing, it seems extremely unlikely to turn around whilst the Labour Government remains in power. Today’s Financial Times reports that Alistair Darling will announce on Wednesday he is scrapping Gordon Brown’s fiscal rules introduced in 1997, thus allowing him to borrow even larger amounts in the months ahead.

And on where, goodness only knows although one fact is now obvious.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were handed a golden economic legacy by John Major and Ken Clarke when Labour came to power 11 years ago.

Should the Conservatives be successful at the next General Election, it appears David Cameron and George Osborne will be handed exactly the opposite.