The Guardian view on austerity strategy: time for George Osborne to be flexible | Editorial

The chancellor should pay heed to his predecessors at the Treasury - and to the doubts of his own MPs

It is neither an original nor a controversial observation that families trapped in poverty might be blameless for their misfortune. Likewise, it is not Bolshevism to observe that extremes of inequality - whether measured by income or opportunity - have a corrosive effect on society. Clearly not, because those points were made on Tuesday in a thoughtful speech by Sir John Major, the former Conservative prime minister.

That Sir John's intervention made headlines testifies to a narrowing in recent years of Conservative discourse. It speaks to the party's capture by a dogmatic view of the national economic interest predicated almost exclusively on the pursuit of budget discipline, whose social cost may be regretted but not cited as reason to change course.

Continue reading...