Since the current economic strategy was announced, people on the left and right have been making firm predictions, which are now testable against actual events. I think it is incontrovertible that the predictions from the right have been proved wrong, and the policies espoused by the Tories and Lib Dems are wrecking our economy. The type of cuts that have been put in place will increase costs, and harm private companies. Meanwhile income is going down. So the government deficit increases. It is all happening just as we said it would.
And now this. What is Cameron's response to the disaster as it unfolds:
The only way out of a debt crisis is to deal with your debts. That means households – all of us – paying off the credit card and store card bills.
That is a frighteningly ridiculous statement. It shows a complete failure of economic understanding. And in a practical sense, what does it even mean for a household? Pay off our store cards? What about mortgage debt - are we to pay that off (clearly impossible)? If not, why privilege one debt over another? And what about the current Student Loan policy which deliberately increases the level of personal debt? The statement is incoherent even at the level of the individual. As an economic statement it frightens me more than almost anything this team have ever said. It's as if your oncologist said he was going to cure your cancer by impaling a frog.
In any case the government's current rubbish growth strategy is based on the expansion of personal debt. Here is a report from April:
The OBR's projections for growth are dependent on households borrowing more in order to spend more. If people don't borrow more to spend more, the country's finances would be in even a worse state than it is.
I sometimes think younger people are unaware of how volatile the world is. It seems to them that things will more or less muddle on, and work out somehow, and that the people in charge know what they are doing. Wrong. The universe is unforgiving. I don't think it matters now if you are right wing or left wing. You have to stop this, quickly.
ETA I am obviously not the only person who was astounded. Since I posted that Cameron has rewritten his speech to remove call to 'pay off credit cards'. Someone got to him. Someone with a clue. But I have to say, when I say to hypothetical brainy people in the Government's ranks 'you have to stop this' it's not enough to edit an idiotic speech. The catastrophically poor judgment remains, and he will keep causing problems, large and small.