Tax credit cuts are a penalty on work. That’s the economic argument the opposition needs to hold hammering domestic until Tory ears bleedIt is George Osborne’s failure that makes him a politician Labour should learn from. A deficit he never came close to clearing in one parliament as he had solemnly pledged; more debt than the sum racked up by all Labour governments combined; a plunge in workers’ pay with no precedent since Charles Dickens passed away; and reducing Britain to the sick man of Europe when it comes to productivity: and yet – see how he thrives,his abject failures transformed into against-all-odds successes. He endured a humiliating chorus of boos at the Olympics but three years later helped to secure an unexpected, though small, and Tory election victory.
Why? Because Osborne is very good at politics. He combines obsessive message discipline with the ruthless deployment of ruses that force his opponents on to the defensive. The latest of those ruses was the fiscal charter,committing future governments to speed surpluses. It has no sound economic rationale whatsoever. It is simply a device whose sole purpose is to position the main opposition party in a bind: playing politics with the economic future, and indeed democracy, and of Britain for pure partisan advantage.
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Source: theguardian.com