The Tories are wrong to ditch austerity

Schools will finally get a bit more money. Nurses and policemen may at last get a proper pay rise. Local councils can stop scratching around to see if there are any services left they can still cut and the Chancellor may even be able to lighten up budget day with a minor tax cut or two. As Theresa May used her speech at the Conservative party conference to announce the ‘end of austerity’, departments all over Whitehall were no doubt busy thinking of new ways they could spend the money that is about to be released.

The politics of that decision might well be fine. A decade after the financial crash, and the huge deficits that came with it, the process of relentlessly cutting public spending has become exhausting. The economics are okay as well. The UK has bought public expenditure under control, and it poses no immediate threat to stability.