Bank for International Settlements projections

The Taxpayers' Alliance posts a sombre picture of Britain's immediate economic future based on projections by the Bank for International Settlements that show Britain to be in the worst fiscal position of all developed economies, rivalled only By Japan.

Without in any way seeking to devalue the BIS figures as a judgement on past and current UK fiscal policy, the projections are of course the same statistical horse feathers as any other long-term projections. Long before any of the worst case scenarios came to pass, whatever government was in power would have to take drastic action to change the equation.

So, the question is: who do you want in power when the birds come home to roost? It's a very good question indeed, and may lie behind the current Labour party strategy of playing to economic management as their strength, with their tame unions credibly threatening to subvert an incoming Tory administration.

Mandelweasel and Campbell are calculating that a sufficient proportion of the British middle class is sufficiently cowardly and stupid to vote for the party that seems to offer less conflict in the short term, while among those who despise Labour and all its works there may be a significant number who think that it should be left in power to reap the consequences of it corrupt mismanagement.

They are almost certainly right on the first count. I would incline to the second if it were not that five more years of Labour gerrymandering, bribery and intimidation has a good chance of achieving the one-party state that was always the objective of the New Labour Project.

Either way, the country's slide into the dustbin of history will accelerate. I cannot shake the suspicion bordering on certainty that for the last 13 years the British have not only had the government they deserve, but also one that truly represents them.