'Austerity' is a big con

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -- if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth" -- George Orwell, 1984

Austerity is the word of the moment, but last week the inter-dealer broker Tullett Prebon cast doubt upon Britain's austerity programme by claiming that it is nothing more than "a spin job" that is designed to deceive the markets, and that the government's claim that public spending has been cut is "bare-faced deception".