The analogy they have used to aid their argument is that the government is like a household and households must balance their finances: by reducing the deficit, they are going to put our huge public house in order.
It is not clear that the analogy is accurate or helpful. There are good reasons to think that cutting government spending can be more harmful to economic growth than piling up some more debt. As I mentioned in an earlier post (The Great British Experiment), the U.S treasury secretary believes that cutting the deficit will jeopardise their economy.
I was struck recently on hearing Hercules & Love Affair's new tune - My House by the fact that Cameron and Osborne would be very jealous of singer Antony Hegarty's lyrics..."My house is in order..." Let's hope that the coalition policy works, the economy recovers, we can all declare that our house is in order, and that they can play this wicked tune at a conference soon.
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