David Cameron and George Osborne are learning the wrong lesson from Gordon Brown’s time in office. Rather than demonstrating the power of their economic ideas with deeds at home, Britain’s prime minister and chancellor are now following Labour’s previous prime minister in preferring to lecture others abroad. The reaction at the World Economic Forum last week was unappreciative.
Instead of counterproductive posturing, ministers should recognise that the area in which Britain still leads the international debate is fiscal policy. Over the past four years, under both Mr Brown’s Labour government and Mr Cameron’s coalition government, the UK was early to understand the situation and rapid in its response.
The Labour government recognised the sudden stop in private sector spending in late 2008 and implemented a fast and temporary fiscal stimulus. By mid-2009 most of the rest of the advanced world had followed. Labour also saw the need for subsequent fiscal repair and started to tighten fiscal policy at the start of 2010, a shift subsequently deepened and defined fully by the new government later that year.