None of the above

The Institute for Fiscal Studies tells us none of the parties in the election are being honest about the economy.  The governor of the bank of England is reported saying this is a good election to lose, because the next government will be forced to take measures that’ll be its own electoral funeral.  The National Institute of Economic and Social Research tells us how much tax needs to rise, and it’s not pretty.

Meanwhile, none of the political parties is being honest about it.  Noone will get a mandate for the necessary cuts, because noone is campaigning for such a mandate!  The nearest they’ll get is the sobering lesson of Greece’s crisis, for what that’s worth.

But suddenly lots of respected non-partisan commentators are speaking up.  Could some of these folks be co-opted to take the most painful decisions off the hands of our politicians?  Is this a serious attempt to step in where our so-called democracy has failed, and deal with the issue of denial?

The Tory party is now reported as planning to ask the IMF to review our economic troubles, presumably with a view to trying to legitimise “difficult decisions” for which it has no mandate.  Could just be the most sensible thing on the agenda, for what little it’s worth.