Yep, it’s that time of the year again: the run-up to the Pre-Budget Report, when we hear tales of splits between Number 10 and the Treasury on how they should approach the fiscal mess we’re in. According to today’s Sunday Telegraph, and going off rumblings on Whitehall, Darling is pushing for a more expansive package of cuts. Whereas Brown – and Ed Balls, natch – would prefer to emphasise all that investment, investment, investment.
In which case, I was tempted to just copy-and-paste a post I wrote last year, on a similar subject, and at almost exactly the same time in the political cycle. Its point was that stories about tension between Brown and Darling could work to undermine Labour’s overall economic message. As it happens, that’s still the case. And, like then, I still think that the measures in the PBR will hardly match up to the scale of the debt mountain.
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