Cut and cut hard!

So we are in double dip territory.

There is a lot of debate as to whether "the cuts" (and bear in mind that total government expenditure is still rising relentlessly) have been too soon and too much. Listen to Ed Balls and this is his mantra.

In history, we have only ever been in double dip territory - in the early 1930s and the early 1970s.

In 1932-34, the government cut spending hard and yet from then to 1937, real GDP grew by over 20%.

Post 1976, with savage cuts in Government spending, we had sustained growth in the 1980s and 1990s.

There is no historical precedent for the Government to borrow more and increase spending, and so those who advance it as a solution to stimulate growth are speaking more from hope than experience.