[deathcakes]

I agree with this - I was making the point that austerity, by the terms of its own argument, hasn't worked. Reducing public spending has demonstrably not reduced our debt burden even before the pandemic, and so therefore I would suggest we abandon it.

[kergonath]

Definitely, it was a resounding failure of the modern Neo-liberal ideas. What worries me though is the cakeist populists who are feeding on resentment and who are in power or close to it in several European countries (including the UK). There will need to be a tax increase, probably not for most people, but in terms of tax revenues.