Who’d have thought it? There’s David Miliband getting all self-righteous about the “cons” in George Osborne’s Budget, when – oh dear – he slips in a small con of his own. Here’s the relevant passage:
And here, going off Labour’s own plans, is what he should have written:“[The Budget] was avoidable. Labour set out plans to cut the deficit by half over the next Parliament. The Tories have chosen to cut the whole of the deficit and more to the tune of £32billion in public services and £11billion in welfare.”
So was this an intentional, Brown-style trick? Or has he forgotten that “deficit” and “structural deficit” aren’t“[The Budget] was avoidable. Labour set out plans to cut the structural deficit by ‘more than two-thirds’ over the next Parliament. The Tories have chosen to cut the whole of the structural deficit and more to the tune of £32billion in public services and £11billion in welfare.”

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