Payout time
Gordon Brown is showering public services with cash. The consequences may be unpredictable
ON THE day that Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, announced a new fiscal framework for planning public expenditure in 1998, he spoke of the temptation for politicians to raise spending as an election approaches. “It has been suggested that this is my plan for the years to come, the election war-chest thesis, nothing can be further from the truth.” Two years on, the election war-chest thesis looks rather more credible: this week's spending review has opened the Treasury's coffers.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Payout time”
From the July 22nd 2000 edition
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