Osborne provides a choice Brown quote

George Osborne has an article in today's Times carrying on his theme that the Tories are now the progressive force in the UK. I must say I've often wondered why the Left - and I use the general term advisedly - lay claim to exclusive ownership of the term "progressive".

I guess they would argue that progressive and conservatism are opposites, but that is clearly not the case because conservatives have quite often changed things and moved the country forward. This said though, it is the beginning of the article by Osborne that caught my eye, as it quotes Gordon Brown in his 1996 conference speech just before he became Chancellor,

"I tell you we have learnt from past mistakes.... Just as you cannot spend your way out of recession, you cannot, in a global economy, simply spend your way through a recovery either.... losing control of public spending doesn’t help the poor".

When Parliament sits again I do hope Cameron reminds him of these words a few times as he bangs on about the need to spend more to get out of recession.