Fiscal Irrelevance Bill

Yesterday MPs voted through the Fiscal Responsibility Bill which pledges to halve the budget deficit within four years.

Aside from the anti-Keynesian nonsense of the concept (cutting investment during a recession), and the brutal nature of the cuts envisaged by all three main parties, the most relevant aspect of the Bill is it's irrelevance.

Clauses 1 and 2 of the Bill set out targets for cutting the deficit. Clause 3 states that if an objective set by Clause 1 or 2 of the Bill is not met then the Government must come to Parliament and explain why not.

Very simple: a sensible government would report annually saying it was ignoring the objectives set under Clauses 1 and 2 as they would damage the economy, and public services. Job done. Forget about the Fiscal Irrelevance Bill. There's not even a need to repeal it.

Nevertheless, Bill or not, the political cuts consensus continues unabated, and it's good that LEAP Chair John McDonnell has tabled EDM 681 'Public Expenditure and the Deficit':

That this House notes that in his interview in the Financial Times of 19 January 2010 the Chancellor of the Exchequer has admitted to a planned policy of 17 per cent. cuts in expenditure across Government departments other than schools, health and the police force, the early withdrawal of the 50 pence tax rate and an end to the tax on bonuses; and therefore judges that this will mean that the ordinary people of the UK will be the ones who are to pay for the economic crisis, not of their making, and that many of those who, through their reckless greed caused the crisis, will walk away unscathed, receiving new bonuses and playing once again in the casino economy.

So far also signed by MPs Katy Clark, Jeremy Corbyn and David Drew - all of whom are supported in the LRC General Election Campaign.