You're looking at a government that believes in the household budget theory of macroeconomics.
This is economic illiteracy. But before anyone gets excited, the whole Tory Party, most of the Labour Party and the Lib-Dems all believe in this model, or purport to believe in it. Most ordinary citizens believe in it too, as it appears to make sense. We all know that you can only spend and borrow so much on a given income without getting into trouble.
The reality is that the state and a private household are clean different things. But this model is so baked into to people's heads that it is very difficult to shift.
So what you have is a broadly left government tying its own hands to conform to a nonsense. This means they are severely restricted as to what they can do as they 'have to balance the books'. They are also terrified of spooking the financial markets. (A legacy of Truss.)
So expect very slow progress and some decisions you will hate. It's inevitable. The only good thing is that unlike the Tories they will not make a god of tax cuts, to the point of offering unaffordable ones.
www.standard.co.uk
