The crucial questions on the economy which the Labour leadership contenders are yet to address

Labour MP and blogger Tom Harris wrote a typically candid post on his must-read blog last night.

He pointed out that none of the Labour leadership contenders appear to be addressing the crucial question of "why the government (in which most of them served right up until the bitter end) has just been rejected by the electorate".

Wondering whether Labour would have made the same kinds of cuts announced by the Coalition yesterday to address the deficit, he asks a series of questions which the would-be Labour leaders ought to be addressing about the party's economic record:

• What have we got to say about how we ended up here in the first place? 
• Was every single spending decision we made in office the right one? 
• Were we right to adopt a light-touch banking regulatory system? 
• Was the global recession solely to blame for the catastrophic level the deficit has reached? 
• Could we have done more to balance the books sooner? 
• Should we have? 
• What happened to our hard-earned reputation for economic competence? 
• If it has indeed been lost, did we deserve to lose it?

He strongly hints that the level of Labour Government's spending binge was irresponsible and that, having been rejected by the electorate, the party  must conduct an "uncomfortable debate" about what it did wrong.

Read his full blog post here.

Jonathan Isaby