Your post is predicated on the presumption that the IMF actually knows what it is talking about, as opposed to always being wise after the event. I mean seriously, what do they know? A couple of years back they were saying (IIRC) that the UK economy was doooooomed unless we completely abandoned austerity, yet we are where we are.

The Germans went through a massive shake-out in the late 90s whereby average earnings fell by 10-20% to make themselves more competitive, and a whole bunch of austerity measures at about the same time Labour's banking folly was gathering momentum (you'll recall their jibes about the "old fashioned" German economy). And yet, it doesn't seem to have done them much harm; they faced global realities, took some painful medicine and are now reaping the rewards. If only the French et al were able to do the same/live remotely within their means, the Eurozone would be a much more successful place - fat chance of that with a Socialist government, though. 75% tax rates ahoy, for all the good it's doing them.

If this appears arrogant, well, I'm not claiming any economic expertise either. I'm just a dumbass engineer lugging stuff up and down stairs on building sites. But then, I don't purport to be anything else.



Of course, but tell me Chris, which government(s) do NOT massage unemployment figures? This is THE issue of our age. Zero-hour contracts? I hate them, but prefer even these to people wholly out of ANY contract for years and years, drawing benefits and rotting at home. A lesser of two evils, but not to say we can't further improve the situation. Politically speaking, I believe the Conservatives are only too aware of this.

Wealth divergence? It was never worse than it was under Labour - in supposedly "good" times (though in retrospect we now know that was illusory), but aside from political point scoring, this, again, is a problem of our age and likely function of Capitalism. 'The American Dream', if you like, is predicated on a few people making it big, but for every one of them they'll be 10 or 100 who do not. It has been this way for 50 years minimum.

Of course, wealth redistributive policies are an important bulwark against the harsher side-effects of pure Capitalism and this is entirely right, but those levers need a gentle touch, otherwise we end up with Socialism and everyone in the shit. It is a very fine balance to strike and again, the global reality is that skilled Chinese workers are there in their hundreds of millions earning £1/hour and happy to accept dire working conditions. Europe does not live in an insular bubble.

All this aside, no-one could argue that there HAS been a marked, real terms, real world drop in unemployment and, however you slice it, that's nothing short of remarkable considering where we were in May 2010. From my side, this deserves genuine credit whatever one's politics, but like I say, that's just not going to happen.



Of course, but I mean seriously, who didn't see that coming? The Conservative Party is a so-called "toxic brand" in Scotland. However, even that is starting to wear a little thin, even there; I read recently that the number of Scots who regard current benefit payment levels as "too high" has risen from 25% to over 50% in just 2 years, and let's not forget they elected a UKIP MEP recently - unthinkable. Small "c" Conservatism is making a comeback, even in Scotland. I suspect the SNP have rather left things too late from their perspective; if they'd have grasped the nettle 2 or 3 years back, they could have conceivably pulled this off. (They still might, of course, with the narrowest of margins, but I very much doubt it).