“Beyond Fiscal Fables & Greek Myths: the real debate about our economic future”  

Alan Johnson gave his second major speech on the economy on 11 November 2010 at the Royal Society of Arts. You can read the full speech below: “The American writer, Tom Woolfe, once said “a Liberal is a Conservative who's been arrested.” I suppose a modern inversion would be that a Conservative is a Liberal who's been coalitioned. But Liberal Democrats only have a walk-on part in this drama. When it comes to the economy, this is very much a Tory government. George Osborne, declared one important truth at the despatch box on 20 October when he said “to govern is to choose”. But the Conservatives and their Stockholm Syndrome Coalition partners have adopted a policy of pretending they have no choice in order to try and evade responsibility for the one they've made. Thus we have a mantra that is more to do with message discipline than fiscal discipline....