1. Under Labour, there was a deficit of £36 billion or so. None of our leaders on either side of electoral politics said it was a problem.
2. There was a worldwide banking and finance crisis.
3. The deficit shot up.
4. The Tories cooked up the idea that this high deficit was caused by Labour's deficit and not by the banking crisis. Not even Mervyn King ex-boss of the Bank of England believes this.
5. The Tories cooked up the idea that the way to bring this high deficit down was to cut wages, cut welfare, cut public services.
6. When that didn't work, they've spent some more government money and printed £350 billion. That has hardly worked either.
7. The super-rich have got super-richer, the poor have got poorer, a lot of people in between have stood still or lost in real terms against prices. Some of us think that has been the real aim of deficit-talk and austerity anyway.
