Writing here on Tuesday, I made two accusations regarding the government’s deficit reduction plan. First, I said that cuts so far had been minimal. Second, I argued that higher taxation, rather than cuts in spending, was being used to reduce the deficit. On this basis, I said, government and opposition alike are being mendacious when they speak of ‘savage cuts’ in public spending.
In reply, Matthew Hancock said that I was using the wrong periods for comparison. The government, which took office in May 2010, could not be held responsible for spending in 2010-11, so it was misleading for me to use Labour’s last year in office (2009-10) as my base year. In any case, Mr Hancock added, we need to look at the whole of the plan, which runs from 2011-12 to 2016-17.
To a certain extent, Mr Hancock misses my point, which was that real cuts in spending so far range between minimal and non-existent.
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