The Conservatives are preparing for the worst: rightly so, since any new government next year will inherit dire public finances. Their new approach is going in the right direction, but it is still only a partial answer.
The rigorous thinking about the public sector before 1979 by the Tories in opposition was the key to the Thatcher Government’s eventual success, though it took until the mid-1980s to pay off.
David Cameron and George Osborne have recognised the severity of the fiscal challenge by announcing that the Tories will not match Labour’s new plans for next year and beyond. Labour’s response has been to drone on about cuts, but this no longer works given how bad the situation now is. The difference between the slower long-term