Austerity was a disaster. But in the absence of proper counter-arguments, Osborne is able claim it was an economic triumph
October 2008: the banks are collapsing and Blairs boom is turning to Browns bust. Amid all this, one of the most thoughtful Labour backbenchers is setting out for me the central task facing his party: The question is, can we make this a Labour recession?
I am sure that already he could hear the last rites being read for his government. The consoling hope was that Labour could set the terms of the debate about the nature of this economic crisis, and how to fix it.
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