'For the Greater Good' - Labour’s Spring Statement and other stupid justifications for harm

The quiet return of austerity, the sacrifice of credibility — and the kind of economic policy that only makes sense if you squint at a spreadsheet and ignore the blood.

Supporters of Labour’s fiscal approach will be quick to remind critics: you can’t call it austerity when you’ve introduced £40 billion in tax increases and are spending on an average of £69.5 billion.

The problem is -

Unless people see it — more importantly, feel it — in a way that creates tangible, positive change, then those numbers are just big, abstract figures buried in a Treasury spreadsheet and it feels like austerity regardless of those sums.

Take last year’s budget. I wasn’t particularly impressed. I was even less impressed by last week’s news that the Department for Work and Pensions is hunting for £5 billion in savings.

And yet, despite the outcry over proposals to tighten eligibility rules for key benefits, that announcement pales in comparison to the real story over the quiet devastation buried in Rachel Reeves’ spending review.