Election Time
It has started – the Monty Pythonesque exchange of electoral promises. Everyone agrees that there is an impressively great public-sector deficit and that it will have to be reined in quickly. That means either steep tax raises or deep spending cuts, or, most likely, both. But in modern politics it simply does not do to tell the voters what is going to happen. Instead, the parties pussyfoot around the subject, telling us how they will protect vital services, avoid inflation, attack poverty and tax us fairly – all at the same time. Some public spending is, if you believe them, utterly sacrosanct, notably that on education and the National Health Service.