Whenever Labour wants to complain about not increasing public spending (or investment as Brown now describes filling potholes in road – that’s not maintenance any more!) I want you to remember this key passage from Bliar’s 1997 manifesto:

The myth that the solution to every problem is increased spending has been comprehensively dispelled under the Conservatives. Spending has risen. But more spending has brought neither greater fairness nor less poverty. Quite the reverse – our society is more divided than it has been for generations. The level of public spending is no longer the best measure of the effectiveness of government action in the public interest. It is what money is actually spent on that counts more than how much money is spent.

The national debt has doubled under John Major. The public finances remain weak. A new Labour government will give immediate high priority to seeing how public money can be better used.

The Cameron Leadership

In 1997, the argument had been won. Public spending is not the answer to decent public services. Eight years later we are still fighting to implement this won argument. Eight years on Bliar has wasted as much money as Major and then some, and continued to achieve the opposite of value for money.

Just like everyone else in the country I would like to have more money. I would also, though, like to stop hearing BBC journalists claiming that a reduction in the rate of increase in public spending is somehow prudent. Brown has long stopped deserving the monicker.