Associate Editor Gil Smart envisions in his column “The greatest fairy tale of all” :
“Huge domestic spending cuts are coming. And I fully expect to see those cuts in isolation. Which is to say that there will be no meaningful military cuts, and I suspect we’ll not only keep the Bush tax cuts in place, we’ll cut taxes on top earners even more…
“And still we will believe the greatest fairy tale of all, that austerity will lead back to prosperity. No. It leads back toward a poorer past. Yet if austerity were to be shared by all, the country might endure; we could take solace in the fact that everyone was doing his or her part, we would all be in this together.
“But we’re not; we will all sink or swim on our own. Yet somehow we assume we’ll be able to retain our stable, civil society in the process.”
WATCHDOG: Two wags of the tail
