If John Maynard Keynes were alive today, he would be appalled at the disastrous state of our public finances. He is loved and hated in equal measure as the man who made pump-priming during downturns intellectually respectable. But nothing he ever wrote could be used to justify the scandalous mess in which Gordon Brown has landed Britain.
Not only has Keynes been body-snatched by advocates of big state spending, but he finds himself in the battleground for the next general election. At Labour’s conference next week, the Prime Minister will say that Labour must be re-elected precisely because it will cut spending by less than the Tories. David Cameron’s attempt to reduce the fiscal deficit more quickly, he will argue, will tip the economy into a new recession. This will be Labour’s war-cry from now on.
Mr Brown’s agenda is fairly straight-forward.
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