As delegates assemble for Labour’s post-election conference, there is a palpable relief that the Tories have been thrown out, but it’s hard to detect the sparkling optimism that would be expected after the long-awaited election of a Labour government. Of course, part of this downbeat atmosphere is due to the toxic inheritance from the Tories after 14 years of austerity and the last few years of their manic scorched-earth policies.
Despite all the recent talk of “black holes”, nobody was realistically surprised at the mess the Tories made of the public finances. In a report that Andrew Fisher and I published last year on “Labour’s in-tray”, we calculated the amount needed to just return spending on our public services to 2010 levels was £70bn. Even though the political parties conspired to avoid the debate about just how tough it would be after the election for any government, people knew.
