So much for Labour’s stewardship of the economy. Investment in fixed assets (machinery and buildings) is not enough even to cover wear and tear – it’s down 22 per cent from the end of 2007 – by far the largest fall in any postwar slump.
Meanwhile firms’ financial surplus is 9.9 per cent of GDP, its highest level since 1987, as firms use our subsidies to boost profits not production, jobs or wages – apart from bosses’ pay, of course.
Then the government has the nerve to promise “two parliaments of pain”. That’s one promise they won’t renege on.