Coalition Myths on Budget

A myth appears to be developing that Labour and the Tories have the same position on the budget deficit.  This is being particularly put about by fringe parties such as the Greens and UKIP, who try to paint the more established parties as the same.

In fact, as the first graph in this post handily shows, the three parties of government have significantly different positions.  The Tories are the keenest on more austerity and Labour the most reluctant.  This is unsurprising given that Ed Balls criticised the Tories rush to austerity as far back as August 2010, saying:

"[deficit reduction should be implemented] only once growth is fully secured and over a markedly longer period than George Osborne is currently planning …Just think if Clement Attlee’s government at the end of the second world war had decided that the first priority was to reduce the debts built up during the war – there would have been no money to fund the creation of the NHS, no money to rebuild the railways and housing destroyed in the blitz, no money to fund the expansion of the welfare state.”

This makes perfect sense within his essentially Keynesian analysis.  There is also the issue of where the cuts/tax rises would fall.  The Tories seem to be hellbent on a level of cuts that is simply undeliverable, largely because it fits in with the kind of crude bastardized Thatcherism that Cameron and Osborne have internalised to the level of prejudice.  Likewise, they appear utterly opposed to tax rises for the rich because of their views on trickle down economics.  Both those attitudes set them apart from Labour.