Thanks for the post Mainly Macro, John. Wren-Lewis is an interesting economist but my problem with the post in question is that it doesn't get to the heart of the issue at hand and that the comparisons of the UK with Greece in this respect are relatively meaningless. He is comparing unlikes. The UK is a sovereign currency issuing country while Greece, since it joined the Eurozone, is not. The comparison of debt to GDP ratio in this context hence, doesn't make much sense. The UK's debt to GDP ratio during the war was something like 235% while after the Great Recession it was around 80%, though there is some dispute about these figures. Notwithstanding this high ratio after the war, the UK initiated the welfare state, including the NHS.

He also discusses Cameron when he should be discussing Osborne. Here are two different takes on what Osborne is doing and has been doing. From both of these commentators, you get the impression that it is Osborne who has become the puppet master.

William Keegan:

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/22/george-osborne-straight-from-flatline-to-rollercoaster

George Eaton:

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/03/budget-showed-osborne-s-greatest-skill-ability-rebrand-his-failure-success

Update: the so-called head to head on Ch 4 showed to me that Cameron does not really know what he is doing though he gives a reasonable performance. Miliband wasn't as good as he was on budget day, but he didn't turn in a bad performance. Paxman, who since he left Newsnight has admitted that he is a "bit of a Tory", showed a significant bias in the different treatments he gave the two candidates. Two examples: 1) he lounged back in his chair and sneered at Miliband, something he didn't do when "grilling" Cameron; 2) while the mikes were still on, he asked Miliband if he was all right, which can be reasonably interpreted in two ways - that he was generally concerned about Miliband's psychological state of mind or that he was trying to undermine him as a credible candidate who is "tough". I lean toward the latter interpretation because he could have checked on Miliband's state of mind after the mikes had been turned off, and he is a seasoned enough journalist to be aware of this.

[log in to unmask] type="cite">I'd welcome comments on the following proposal for Radstats 2016 in York. Please tell your friends, and put Saturday 27 February in your diary.

Friday 26: something will be arranged for the evening, probably in the Priory Street Centre ( PSC ), which is where we met in 2013 and is 500 m from York station. We can help on overnights.

Saturday 27: conference in PSC. PrObably 9-5 or something like that. For the evening I am thinking of booking the Spurriergate Centre which is an 11th century church about 500m from PSC. They are a charity. They do good works and good meals with a veggy bias. But extreme veggies they are not!

Sunday 28 morning: walking tour guided by York Alternative History Group who have recently published a book of Walks based on "York's history from below."

Comments welcome please! Thank you. JOHN BIBBY
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