On the road to ruin
This observation was backed by dismal forecasts showing debt on course to reach 270 per cent of GDP by 2070, and the note that challenging global and domestic circumstances risk further shocks to the public finances. Yet at Westminster there is little sign that MPs have realised the precarious position Britain finds itself in. Indeed, Labour's 2024 intake of MPs seem to believe that the Government's finances are limitless in their depth.
The rebellion that recently rocked the Government was over a £5 billion cut in a health and disability benefits bill set to reach £70 billion a year by 2030 – a fraction of the forecast spend. The result was another U-turn in attempts to arrest rising spending, going alongside the failed attempt to reform old-age benefits.
This, in turn, suggests that Britain's finances will continue towards what Mr Hughes calls an 'unsustainable position' until we are jolted from our complacency by the vigilance of the bond markets, or an even less desirable intervention. It would clearly be preferable to rein in the growth of spending now, voluntarily.
The older meaning of the word 'crisis' as a turning point in a malady is apposite here. The British disease – welfarism, an elite class unwilling to reckon with the need for change, a state that strangles entrepreneurial activity and investment – is reaching its peak. Whether the patient will recover before extraordinary measures are necessitated is unclear.
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