Latest editorial
George Osborne's “counterproductive” austerity measures have left Britain £10.7 billion further in the red than was expected, official figures showed yesterday.
Underlying public-sector debt was £1.27 trillion for the year to the end of March, ahead of the £1.26trn forecast last month by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
It meant that the sum owed by the public purse rose more steeply than predicted to 75.8 per cent of GDP, compared to the 74.5 per cent OBR forecast.
Only an ambitious programme of state-led investment can restore growth and improve living standards, argues MICHAEL BURKE
Friedrich Merz’s call for a new Plaza Accord ignores how Washington’s 1985 currency ambush destroyed Japan without fixing US deficits — China, a sovereign socialist state with 1.4 billion consumers, cannot be bullied the same way, writes CARLOS MARTINEZ
If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE
As the dollar falters and US power turns predatory, Britain and Europe must abandon transatlantic illusions and build a collectivist alternative before the system implodes, writes ALAN SIMPSON