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The reason given for austerity was to avoid what we’ve just seen - if the country spends more than it gets in then the international markets (whatever they are) think we’re shit and fuck us. The austerites will argue that what just happened proves they were right I expect.
I have no opinion on this because it’s too hard for me to understand.
Hefty-
The reason given for austerity was to avoid what we’ve just seen
don't agree - austerity was ideologically driven, damaging and unneeded.
what came next amply demonstrated that we can afford to support people and services better without causing hyper inflation or breaking the £.
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The austerites will argue that what just happened proves they were right I expect.
Yep - they are. (E.g Rory Stewart)
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No it wasn’t. Interest rates, borrowing rates etc etc were low across the board and disinflation was more of a concern than inflation. Smart, evidenced economic policy would have said that this was the time for state spending to stimulate the economy. Instead the Tories (backed by the press, the commentariat, and the right wing of the Labour Party) decided to waste this once in a lifetime to invest in our infrastructure pretty much for free in order to wage an ideological war on the size of the state, and on the poor.
ChasnotRobert
andyfallsoff
Eejit
Sorry - and I know these aren’t your words - but this is abject horseshit. FFS the 6 years preceding Brexit were presided over by an austerian Conservative regime. What exactly was the rationale for austerity? Was it reasoned, was it based on evidence? Did it conform to elementary facts and logic? Similarly, pretty sure we went to war back in the early 2000’s on the basis of zero facts and zero logic and the politicians responsible got away with that scot free (lol, they’re still feted in the press and given fawning interviews).
Let’s stop pretending like Brexit was this country’s downfall. Everything was fucked before Brexit. It’s just that Brexit universalised how fucked we were, rather than constraining the fuckedness to the poor, the sick and the otherwise marginalised.