It's a rout
THE CHANCELLOR'S biggest deal of all is now before us. We have his spending plans for the rest of this Parliament, and they look like a rout for the Treasury. Deep in his department's cautious soul lies a belief that the spending departments are its adversaries, and that in the hundred years' war that has lasted since Gladstone's death the spenders have been winning. Now the Chancellor has put his name to plans that will raise public spending by one-fifth, with more money all round for everything except the defence of the realm. Experience has taught the Treasury to conduct its retreats under cover of smoke. It is using new aggregates, meaning that it has found new ways of adding up the sums, so that no one can compare them with the old sums. It has replaced a benefit with a tax credit, thus parting with more money while appearing to spend less. It threatens the spending departments with constant reviews and will not write the cheques until it sees that it is getting value, or so Mr Brown says.
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