Despite Wednesday’s budget, massive public spending will still be needed to revive the UK economy, writes Colin Hines. Plus a letter from Bernie Evans
Rachel Reeves’s budget of jam today, increase tax bills nearer the election seems to have appeased the bond markets and backbenchers for a while. Your editorial, however, is correct to say that, over the longer term, the economic revival that so many people and businesses crave will only come when the government spends on the scale required (The Guardian view on Labour’s budget: real gains for children and struggling families are a welcome shift, 26 November).
In the Green New Deal Group’s recent report – A Popular Budget – we outlined how, in the run-up to the next election, the government’s survival will depend on funding a massive programme of social and environmental jobs and infrastructure. This requires the government and the other non-shrink-the-state parties to show the courage to demand that elected politicians take back control of the reins of the economy to achieve this transformation. This will mean reversing the independence of the Bank of England and rejecting the dictates of the Office for Budget Responsibility and the bond markets for more austerity.