Sean O'Grady: Darling's credibility has been devalued as much as sterling
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Rules, they say, are there to be broken but this is getting silly. Now that the two fiscal rules have been junked, ministers have little left in the way of an economic compass. The inflation target of 2 per cent has been missed more often than not recently; it hit 5.2 per cent in September, hopefully its peak.
We've been ticked off by the EU for breaking the Maastricht guidelines on borrowing, as we no doubt will be again. Government spending is running way ahead of the targets set in the March Budget, as is borrowing. The split of regulatory functions between the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England has not been a conspicuous success. And the Government's targets for everything from halving child poverty to building millions of affordable new homes look forlorn. Nor have we had "an end to boom and bust".
So the credibility that Mr Darling carries when he solemnly promises a sturdy, if flexible, fiscal framework for the future is as devalued as sterling. It need not have been so.
It's too late now but Mr Brown could have stuck to his rules, spent more prudently after 2002, stifled the incipient boom, and had room to spend his way out of trouble today. That is how he prevented recession after the dot com crash of 2000; the money saved in Labour's first term was put to good use then and in 2001.
However, like an absent-minded housekeeper, Mr Brown then forgot to turn the taps off, and flooded the economy with borrowing. How will we mop up the mess?
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments