Benefit Britain & GB debt

"The DWP’s data shows a decline from 5.06m in Nov97* to 4.18m in Nov07 – a decline of just 17% for all out-of-work benefits. Pretty dismal progress, when you consider that Brown had what he describes as the longest period of economic expansion for a century. But what puts it into perspective is what was achieved the Lawson boom. Between May87 and May90, the same welfare caseload was cut by 19%. So Thatcher made a bigger dent in welfare dependency in her third term than Labour has managed in all three of its terms put together.

There is a rule with economic booms: it’s not the size that’s important, it’s what you do with it that counts. Lawsons’ was shorter-lived, but he used it to tackle British joblessness and repay net debt (14.5% of GDP when Thatcher left office, on the OECD’s measurement). Brown used his to ramp up debt - now 32.9% of GDP - then binge on foreign labour to avoid painful welfare reform which his government is trying to do only now, in the middle of a downturn."

See The Spectator for more details.