Cut public Spending and get the finances in order as soon as possible. Once the finances are sorted then you can cut taxes. It is exactly what Thatcher did, although she had the advantage of selling off the nationalised industries, with the help of Mr. Redwood. It will therefore take Dave longer to put the books in order, I fear that it will take too long for him to achieve it, before Mandy gets back in.

I can’t find the reference now sorry but the Argentinian govt was doing sthg like this a few months back although that was one step further – i.e., outright nationalisation of the pension funds. So in effect Brown and Mandy take their economic policy from such illustrious types as Mugabe’s Zimbwabe (e.g., monetary inflation to give aggregate demand a good prod)) and a former South American banana republic who just 5 years ago had its own financial financial meltdown which culminated in runs on its banks and the country defaulting on its international debt. And to think at the time people arrogantly said “It couldn’t happen here”. Well at least we can now reply that Mandleson (& Brown) are doing everything they can to prove such people wrong.

Is Labour just trying to get cheap debt for the Government or do they see it as a way of nationalising the private pension schemes, or as they would put it “socialising” them?