In your front page report by George Parker, Sam Fleming and Delphine Strauss, “Reeves recalls Brown’s fiscal rule with pledge to borrow only for investment” (March 20), you note that Gordon Brown, Tony Blair’s chancellor, promised to borrow only to invest over the economic cycle.
The article goes on to highlight that these rules have been repeatedly overhauled by successive chancellors, damaging efforts to convey stability in budget policy.
I recall that Brown himself judged the length of the economic cycle, for the purpose of keeping to his rules, running sizeable deficits and relying on high public sector borrowing, and that his period in government didn’t end well when it came to economic stability.
Colin Evans
London W9, UK
This post was originally published on Financial Times
