Such advice is woefully misguided – a carbon-copy of policy blunders made throughout history, most recently in the 1970s. The UK government, over many years, for the next decade in fact, needs severely to curtail its spending. The most vital services must be protected but the state must do much less and do it better. There really is no alternative, to coin a phrase. The "easy option" of tackling our debts via a lower pound and higher prices is ultimately not only counter-productive, but deeply destructive. It will succeed only in precipitating the gilts strike we're supposed to be trying to avoid.