Gordon said, "I have a credible plan to reduce debt while also improving public services"; the interviewer lifted his eyebrows.
What Gordon meant was, "I am going to be thrown out next year, and I'm going to further ruin the country so that whoever gets in, even an
Etonian, will have to make terrible cuts to expenditure - and my mates will soon be back in with all the perks, expenses etc. they can muster! In the two minutes remaining of this interview you can't prove my wheeze will never work; and so I get the benefit of the doubt, at least from those to whom an extra £3,000 of government debt, per person in the UK,
run up in the last six months - to be paid for by taxpayers (none of whom will
vote for me anyhow), over the next ten years - matters.
Big government rules - the man or woman from
Whitehall really does know best how to spend your money - all of it. But this year's tax return will be simple. "Box A - write your income from all sources for 2009-10; Box B, the amount - exactly the same as in Box A - for which your cheque to HM Revenue and Customs is attached. Please include, also, a pound of flesh."