‘The financial crisis has forced governments to take on many of the liabilities that the private sector could no longer shoulder. Worst hit have been structurally uncompetitive economies, such as Greece and Italy. Next in line have been countries like Spain, Ireland, the UK and, arguably, the US. During the boom, they enjoyed abundant tax revenues from the property and financial services sectors. Now these revenues have collapsed, their budget deficits have exploded.’

Get that? It’s modern financial capitalism that made your life shittier – not an inconistent theme on this blog.

Neither Paul nor I think national debt is prima facie a bad thing. If we attack the debt into which Thatcher catapulted the country, it was because of what the money was being spent on. Which is no different from the Right attacking Brown’s debt, except that plenty of newspaper columnists and commentators attack debt of itself as a bad thing. Until it’s a right-wing government doing it.

Both Paul and I have attacked the government for its pisspoor performance including as regards not reining in the bankers.

That doesn’t mean the genesis of such an approach doesn’t stem from the Thatcher years, which is Paul’s point – and as you yourself point to when you use phrases like “New Labour Thatcherite”.

Your negativity would be more interesting if you had any proposals other than just bitching about everything.