Deficit mania and balanced budgets are a political fraud | Seumas Milne

In Westminster and medialand George Osborne has a reputation as a master political strategist. He might have missed all his economic targets and been booed out of the London Paralympics. But this was the man, it was always said, who would set the traps to sink Labour and deliver a last-minute election turnaround in 2015.

After his autumn statement backfired so spectacularly this month, how can such claims still be taken seriously? It’s not just that he failed to meet his own objectives– on the deficit, debt and growth – while living standards have been continuously cut for the majority, and slashed for the poorest. After such a performance, any continuing talk of a “long-term plan” can only be met with derision.