In case you hadn't noticed, the UK has an election going on.
Paul Krugman delights that this could mean the end of the Austerians. Noting in yesterday's Guardian (30/04/2015), the UK government is about the last in the world where the myth of expansionary austerity is still celebrated.
He notes that a lot of people who have pushed austerity have done so for political, rather than economic, reasons.
The way he voices it is somewhat less cynical than it could have been.
Because while the UK government uses austerity as a political club with which to bludgeon the opposition, it doesn't actually practice it.
The current UK government has comprehensively missed its deficit reduction targets.
After two years of trying austerity, Cameron and Osbourne eventually accepted their policy had failed. They moved to stimulate the housing market as the most ideologically acceptable climbdown for a pair of Conservative right wingers.
Again they promise us lots of pain in the first two ears of the next parliament, followed by an easing up, creating growth in time for the subsequent election.
But now we know even if they did once believe in the silly mantras of Thatcherite economics, experience has taught them how wrong it all is.
Now we know that any cut to social benefits is not for economic, but ideological reasons.
If we vote for them, we will deserve the outcome.
Pity those who will suffer the most for such folly.
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