British Prime Minister David Cameron Lies About the Policy of Austerity His Government Imposed

Because Lying is About the Only Way He Can Explain Things

The Conservative Party’s austerity program in Britain has produced pretty bad results.  Paul Krugman, who is almost always right almost all of the time has a simple chart that shows how Britain compares with the U. S., a nation that fought off conservative policy to implement austerity.

So in order to defend his policy, the British Prime Minister has falsely claimed that the independent British budget agency has said that the Conservative policy is not at fault.  First he claimed that the policy was not the cause of Britain’s economic woes.

Mr Cameron claimed this week that the coalition’s deficit reduction plan was not responsible for the flatlining economy, blaming instead the financial crisis, a 60 per cent rise in oil prices and eurozone problems.

And then he claimed vindication from the independent budget agency.  The agency struck back.

But the prime minister’s claim that the Office for Budget Responsibility endorsed his view brought a stinging letter from Robert Chote, the fiscal watchdog’s chairman, who said all OBR forecasts concluded that “tax increases and spending cuts reduce economic growth in the short term”.

The OBR’s letter comes after Andrew Dilnot, chief statistician, wrote to Number 10 last month about Mr Cameron’s false claim in a party political broadcast that Britain’s debts had fallen since the coalition took office.

The problem of course is that economics cannot be spun, it is a pretty good science, it is based on numbers and data and the Keynesian analysis, upon which all modern non-partisan analysis is based works.  But Mr. Cameron and the Conservatives cannot ever admit that they were wrong, in fact, they will need to double down just to preserve their dignity.  And preserving their dignity is far more important than intellectual honesty or preventing millions from suffering.