Yesterday's launch of a campaign on the rising cost of living while our wages stutter shows how badly Labour has been handling the economy. The cost of living report sets out brilliantly and relentlessly just how much the costs of necessities have gone up while the amount of money we have is going nowhere.
Why now after ten years of Labour? It's been a game of two halves. The first five years saw Labour benefit from the reforms we had put through to strengthen our growth rate as well as coinciding with the start of the rise of India and China which initially kept costs down. The position has reversed in the last five years due to Labour's policies which tend to slow growth and the strengthening of India and China which adds to their demand ability to raise prices. Labour is guilty because they lay down and basked while the sun shone instead of making hay. It's a price we're all now paying.
It will take some time for an incoming Conservative Government to sort out the mess. This is why, although I am a natural tax cutter, I think David Cameron is right to steer away from crowd pleasing promises. That said, the report does set out quite a few good ideas on what a Conservative Government would do to improve things.
