King: Election winner will be out of power for a generation (UK election)

By Edmund Conway Economics Last updated: April 29th, 2010

Whichever party wins this election will have to inflict such painful austerity measures on the British population that they will soon find themselves out of power for a generation. Not my words, the words of Mervyn King, Bank of England Governor.

Or so says American economist David Hale, who says King confided this with him over lunch last week.
To be precise, he said: “I saw the Governor of the Bank of England last week when I was in London and he told me whoever wins this election will be out of power for a whole generation because of how tough the fiscal austerity will have to be.” Ouch.

Now, based on precedent, the chances are that King will deny these remarks (and be pretty furious that Hale has blurted them out in an interview in Australia). Moreover, I happen to know King was out of London most of last week (first on holiday, then at the G20 meetings in Washington) so quite when this lunch happened is unclear. Though I understand they certainly have met.

However, leaving this inconsistencies aside, the comments do seem plausible: King has said repeatedly that the Government will need to impose far more ambitious cuts on the deficit than it currently plans. The comments ought to stand as a reminder that although the focus of the election has switched away to bigotgate, and the economic focus worldwide to the eurozone malaise, Britain faces a decade of hurt in the wake of its decade of debt.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies spelt it out earlier this week in typically frank terms. Labour and the LibDem plans imply the biggest squeeze on public services since the 1970s, when the IMF was in town. The Tory plans imply the biggest set of cuts since records began in 1948.

<SNIP>http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/edmundconway/100005270/king-election-winner-will-be-out-of-power-for-a-generation/

were fully expecting to become very unpopular shortly after winning the election, and planning accordingly.