Forget the sunlit uplands of recovery and let the lean times roll. Admittedly, this is not the economic message any political party wants to unfurl in the run-up to a tightly fought election. It is, however, closer to the real state of affairs than the mumbling evasions the parties have doled out to voters. Take a fine-tooth comb to the figures unveiled on Monday by the Financial Times and you will find an awkward truth for the chancellor.
The level of annual spending cuts needed to stay on course for paying down the deficit by 2020 is likely to be closer to £48bn than the declared yearly £25bn spending gap. The mismatch is mainly the result of a combination of tricksy accounting and memory lapses of the sort that would bring a blush to the face of that serial double-counter and under-counter Gordon Brown. Failing to account for rises in some seriously large pension liabilities for an ageing population explains a large chunk of the rest.
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