Fox in the headless chicken house: good speech to the IEA today. Here is what he said in full. So, "Liam Fox urges spending freeze" (a freeze? Surely there were already cuts?) [BBC]
"Mr Fox's proposed freeze on all public spending - as against the current freeze for Whitehall departmental budgets - would cut spending in real terms by 2.5% a year. The current plan is for a 1% annual cut."
Ah. And, my favourite bit of his speech;
"We are all familiar with the issue and history of debt. In 1997 Labour inherited a balanced budget on coming to office – indeed, it was a budget that was set to move into surplus...
...To make matters worse, the panic spending that Gordon Brown embarked upon in order to try to avoid his impending defeat, set a trajectory for spending that would see debts continue to mount at an alarming rate.
Even with the coalition Government’s deficit reduction plans - which the current Labour leader has attended Trade Union rallies to protest against - the national debt will reach £1.4 trillion in 2015.
History will judge Gordon Brown and his disciples harshly."
I live in hope: the pike is sharpened; the city gates in view. More from Thomas Pascoe reporting [DT], "Dr Liam Fox is absolutely right when it comes to Labour's legacy of debt".
"They spent with abandon, rolling out the Socialist vision of a big state. But much worse; rather than diminishing the reliance that individuals have on the state, they purposely pushed the drug of welfare addiction to more and more people, ensnaring even the affluent middle classes... ..The expansion of welfare addiction is one of the most corrosive effects of socialism and it must not only be neutralised, but reversed."
However, many weren't impressed.
