Andrew Neil demolishes Caroline Flint over Labour "Back to 30s" claim

Even before the revisions in yesterday's budget removed what faint validity the claim had, Caroline Flint looked pretty silly on the "Sunday Politics" show when she trotted out the Labour argument that the Conservatives want to cut spending to 1930's levels.

Flint was unable to  answer the question of how much (in today's money) the government was spending in the 1930s. It's about a tenth of what the coalition is spending today, vastly less than was proposed in last year's autumn statement, and a lower share of GDP than was proposed in yesterday's budget.


Comments

Jim said…

This is a very, very, very basic description, but the key points can be seen.

In the 30's we had the "great depression" in the UK the government tightend the belt and cut back a little on spending. In the USA the government tried to stimulate the economy, and spend its way out.

Which of the two nations suffered the most and the longest during the great depression?

10:51 am
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