Tag Archives: m c escher

Mark Pack

Why budget maths makes me thinks of Escher

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd July 2010 - 12:50 pm

A small state is smaller than a big state, right?

But now bear with me.

Take a glance at the heated rhetoric coming from Labour ranks about how the coalition government is hell bent on a right wing crusade to slash the size of the state.

Then consider this. The coalition’s spending plans will see public spending in 2015-16 at a fraction under 40% of GDP.

And you know what? That’s higher than it was under Labour in 1997-98 and in all the intervening years through to, and including, 2003-04. (See the graph here from Peter Hoskin.)

So the horrible dreadful right-wing small state still …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 5 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Chambers
    > J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner This would be Mr Angry, the Steve who went to Moscow and trusted the Russians to do his translation, and the New...
  • Richard Whelan
    We are gioing down slowly in the polls too. Why? Is it because we currently have nothing to offer other than the odd soundbite that no one remembers....
  • Pawel Urbanski
    Picking up Mark's point, because I don't think it's a small one. Conference is where members top up the energy and motivation that carries both local and nation...
  • paul barker
    Reform had a relatively good night because several of the contests fell in areas where they are relatively strong, however they are still going down steadily, 4...
  • suzanne fletcher
    thank you @Peter Wrigley, yes saw the Liberator article, and David Grace's too. @William Wallace, the jazz band - well words fail, I was in tears before we had...