What fiscal rules should Britain have?
Labour has chosen its framework. Could it be better?
Not many politicians last more than a few years in charge. Short tenures give rise to temptation: to borrow money now and leave the next lot to foot the bill. Economists call this “deficit bias”, the fiscal equivalent of St Augustine’s prayer: “Lord, make me chaste. But not yet.”
Explore more
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Rule intentions”
Britain March 30th 2024
- How Britain’s dirtiest region hopes to become a hub for clean energy
- The future of Drax, Britain’s largest power plant
- What fiscal rules should Britain have?
- A new hate-crime law in Scotland causes widespread concern
- Britain’s kings of sourdough
- Marks & Spencer’s archive is a window on 20th-century Britain
- British boomers are losing out for the first time
From the March 30th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
British MPs vote in favour of assisted dying
A monumental social reform is closer to being realised
The slow death of a Labour buzzword
And what that says about Britain’s place in the world
Britain’s Supreme Court considers what a woman is
At last. Britons had been wondering what those 34m people who are not men might be
Can potholes fuel populism?
A new paper looks at one explanation for the rise of Reform UK
Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks?
How the idea of false consciousness conquered the governing party