Gordon Brown undertook a one hour interview, published in the Times, to set out his stall. Once again, the Prime Minister decided that he needed to get a message across in order to counteract the accusations of deceit, over his figures. The speculation that he appears to be in a minority of two (Brown and Balls) is now vindicated by this bizarre piece.
We all know that the Prime Minister believes in his in effable superiority over the people; his Platonic love for all demands that we are shepherded to the goal of social justice, against our will and with lightened wallets. Nobody was clear why Brown was not facing reality: putting cuts in place on public expenditure, to offset the widest deficit in the advanced industrial economies.
Mr Brown shows that he has no intention of restraining his attack on Conservative plans to cut public spending. While insisting that the Government will meet its target of halving the fiscal deficit in five years, he suggests that economic growth will be the way to cut debt and borrowing without harming the public services.
He insists that because Britain has both publicly and privately been investing more than other countries in the industries of the future — low carbon, biotechnology, digital communications and the creative arts — it has “huge potential” for growth and jobs in the future. He predicts that much of this will come from overseas companies whose investment in Britain has held up despite the recession.
He adds: “When you have growth and jobs you have less debt and less deficit and more resources for the public services.”
If I get this right, economic growth in Britain will be so fast, due to our Californian wizardry and foreign investment, that there will be no need for cuts. Does this mean that he does not accept the Treasury's projections, let alone the Institute of Fiscal Studies? This is desperate stuff from a desperate man, depending upon economic growth and greenery, to salvage his poll position (a great way of tracking political value for politicians, as an aside).
Turning to his other pledge, of popular control over public services, this steals the language of consumerism to enfold the culture of the grass, the snitch and tell on thy neighbour. You can look, in vain, for a dismantling of the quangos and a burning of the regulations. With some jiggery-pokery, Brown offers a consultation here, a new complaints process there, and some more quangos masquerading as ombudsmen.
Window dressing and fantasy from the Prime Mentalist. He is treating his policies like his female colleagues: put on for a no-show.