The left accuses the Coalition of cutting ‘too far, too fast’. However, the Government's critics on the right say that there haven't actually been any cuts. The latter case was made last week in a report from Tullet Prebon – which notes that Government spending has not fallen and that public debt is still rising.
So is this the truth about austerity in the UK? That it doesn’t, in fact, exist?
Nick Pearce, director of the Institute of Public Policy Research, says we need some perspective:
In other words, any notion that the Government could somehow have brought about an immediate halt to the growth of our indebtedness is unrealistic. But what about the more substantial point – that austerity can’t be happening because Government spending isn’t falling? Pearce reviews the figures:
So, yes, no overall cut – so far. But, as Pearce points out, there's a vital distinction to be made between different kinds of spending:
On this reading, David Cameron is already outdoing Margaret Thatcher or any other Prime Minister of the last fifty years.
But, wait, there’s a twist in Pearce's tale. The figures given thus far relate to current expenditure. Capital expenditure, on things like roads and housing, has been hammered – falling by a quarter between 2010/11 and 2011/12:
But who took the decision to make this cut? Over to you Nick Pearce, director of the left-leaning IPPR:
So if cutting 'too far, too fast' really is depriving the economy of the necessary fiscal stimulus, then Labour should criticise its own actions, not those of the Coalition.