A budget to increase national debt? That would be a pay rise for Britain | Phil McDuff
by Phil McDuff from on (#38FDG)
Getting rid of deficits is disastrous for economies - as Bill Clinton proved in the 1990s. But don't expect Philip Hammond to ditch this crazy obsession
Philip Hammond is in a bind as he prepares for the autumn budget. On the one hand, with Theresa May reeling from ministerial resignations and facing rebellion from the right of her party over Brexit, the chancellor is under pressure from his own MPs to ginger the budget horse. On the other hand he is being stalked by John McDonnell's popular (and sensible) policies. And the only defence Hammond can mount is the increasingly threadbare invocation of the "fiscal rules", of keeping the deficit low and maintaining "credibility".
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