When will politicians catch up with economic reality?

It is now almost two years since the credit crunch struck. Yet to listen to the political debate, you'd think nothing much had changed, says Matthew Lynn.

It is now almost two years since the credit crunch struck, more than a year since Lehman Brothers collapsed, and almost 12 months since the British economy plunged off a cliff, sinking into the deepest recession since records began. And yet to listen to the political debate, you'd think nothing much had changed.

During conference season, Prime Minister Gordon Brown reeled off a whole new list of spending commitments. In the weeks since, not a single tough decision has been announced on spending. Unfortunately, that is a foretaste of what is in store for the next six months populist, pointless electioneering that just postpones the task of rebuilding the British economy.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.