Sorry about this but we just can't afford any more government

This is a point that we’ve made before, a number of times. Britain hsa already got more government than Britain is willing to pay for. Therefore we cannot have any new government. No new plans for this or that - simply because we’ve already promised ourselves more than we’re willing to pay for.

The OBR is saying this now:

The Government must find more than £100bn to keep the UK’s debt mountain from spiralling out of control, the budget watchdog has warned, suggesting that steep tax rises or spending cuts are on the horizon.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said pressures from an ageing population, surging debt interest and the shift to net zero meant Britain’s £2.5 trillion debt pile was on course to soar in the coming decades.

Debt is expected to surge from 100pc of GDP today to more than 300pc within 50 years without spending cuts or tax increases.

This is without anything new. Without “making child care affordable”, without “investing in the climate” and without, even, giving the NHS 4% more each year. This is just the totting up of what we’ve already promised ourselves. A pension in our dotage and all that.

We pointed this out 5 years ago and we did so before that too.

Or as we’ve been known to point out, we aren’t willing to pay for the welfare state we’ve already promised ourselves, let alone anything more or new.

The expansion of what government can do for us - or more likely, in our view, do to us - cannot continue simply because we’ve already spent more than all we’re willing to send to pay for it.

Sorry about that and all for those who have further grand plans. But you can’t have them - not unless you identify which bits of current spending you’re going to kill to make room for the new.

Resource constraints always are interesting, aren’t they?

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