Balls’s argument is detached from reality

So who killed the recovery? Ed Balls points to a ‘recession made in Downing St,’ and has gone on a victory tour today. ‘I have consistently warned David Cameron and George Osborne for over a year that going too far and too fast on spending cuts would backfire,’ he says. ‘Arrogantly and complacently they ignored those warnings, and the country is paying a heavy price.’ Facts are always the remedy to an outbreak of Balls. The government releases monthly spending figures, which show an increase overall. That’s due to the rising cost of debt and dole, you might say, but strip those two out and you have what the ONS calls ‘core government spending’. The below figures compare core spending during the financial year just gone with the same months under Brown:
 

 
Osborne will not release such figures in his defence, because he isn’t wild about admitting the slow pace of his fiscal consolidation.