Cllr Iain Lindley's Diary

So Ed Balls, the Children’s Secretary and adviser to Gordon Brown for many years, has let the cat out of the bag – he has described the current recession as the worst for a century. This is significant for several reasons.

First of all, it blows out of the water the ridiculous Labour line that the Conservatives are “talking down the economy” whenever George Osborne or another member of the front bench team try to hold the Government accountable for the current financial situation. It always was arrant nonsense on the part of the Labour Party spin operation and now it has been shown to be so.

More importantly, whatever the rights and wrongs of the rhetoric, a more pessimistic outlook for the economy casts a huge shadow over the Government’s entire economic policy. As David Ottewell points out, Labour’s spending plans are based on the economy returning to significant growth in early 2010; this is entirely incompatible with the remarks made by Ed Balls.

Labour’s spending plans are already set to condemn today’s children to a future of suffocating national debt and higher taxes – what debt burden are we loading onto tomorrow’s taxpayers if Ed Balls’ analysis is even slightly on the money? It’s time for the Labour Government to come clean.