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Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economic commentator, takes a hard look at both Labour and Conservative coalition led economic policy. It’s a must read. Check it out!

via Why neither main UK party is competent – FT.com.

Citing evidence from Oxford macro-economist, Simon Wren-Lewis, Wolf argues that blaming Labour for the financial crisis has been overstated. On the other hand, he maintains that coalition austerity was too deep and too long, delaying economic recovery. When the recovery arrived, it has was unbalanced, on the back of a inflationary housing boom.

John Gelmini and myself have been making similar points for the last four years. For us, a more strategic approach is required, which focuses on investment in growth sectors, de-risking financial services. There’s an urgent need to improve education and core skills of the work force. There are still enormous opportunities to improve the effectiveness of the public sector with radical reform, including cutting wide-scale abuse of the benefit system. Finally, big-businesses must pay their proper share of Corporation Tax or face penalties and levies. Unlike John Gelmini, I still feel that there’s an important place for the the UK in the EU but I accept the need to renegotiate sooner rather than later.

With the high probability of another coalition government, both Labour and the Conservative Party would likely depart from their manifestos.

Personally, on balance, I feel strongly that David Cameron is a safer pair of hands than Ed Miliband‘s high risk lurch to the left, especially supported by Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP. See my earlier blog entitled Top Ten Risks – Ed Miliband Labour Party led UK Government.