Flatlining Britain needs a short, sharp shock

Ireland and Latvia have proven that austerity can work if the cuts are made deep and fast, says Matthew Lynn. That has to be preferable to Britain's never-ending stagnation.

Austerity hasn't had a great press in the last few months. Half the eurozone is stuck in unending recession. The Greek economy is fast disappearing down the plug-hole, and now the Portuguese economy is going the same way. Britain may well be heading for a triple-dip recession as the lid is kept on government spending and the other engines of growth fail to spark to life.

In this country, the Labour Party is inevitably calling for an end to George Osborne's austerity programme. The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, has yet to meet a problem to which borrowing more money was not the answer.

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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.