Frank Field writes in the Telegraph:
The point is that ever since 1945, parties have competed for votes by promising to expand public expenditure. Bribing voters with their own money has been the order of the day. Now the tables have turned. Parties will be judged on how effectively they cut the size of the budget.
So voters are beginning to look for clear answers on two fronts. Will reducing public expenditure be dealt out in the old-fashioned style of cuts across the board? Or will a new government use the need to slash public expenditure as an agent to shape a new radical politics?
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Of course, these new strategies would be difficult to enforce, especially in a country groaning under the weight of that colossal deficit. But our fiscal situation actually makes radical change more possible – and increases the likelihood that whoever wins the next election could head the league table of great reforming administrations.
Let’s hope so: Conservatives have already begun to articulate a strategy for radical change. Read more here.
