It's like ten thousand spoons

Yvette Cooper has been chirruping away in a lefty newspaper about our future Prime Minister. It seems that David Cameron is actually going to be a total disaster, and his economic ideas will ruin us all. She even coins a cute term for the impending cataclysm: "Cameronimcs". Disaster, thy name is known.

Luckily, we still have a couple of years before the end of days, during which time the Great Helmsman will be steering us through the choppy waters. Or so his comrades would have us believe - those who actually know what they're talking about seem to think things aren't quite as rosy:

Recession looms in the UK in the next six to nine months as firms face "a difficult and risky climate", the British Chambers of Commerce warns.

Gordon Brown, of course, told us that "boom and bust" had been abolished - as though somehow the economic cycle didn't apply to him. So how can this be?

Well, Ms Cooper may rail against something of which she's only guessing about, but we already know what Brownonomics is. It's gone a bit like this:

• inherit an economy in good and improving shape
• raise taxes
• spend lots of money
• borrow money
• spend more money
• raise taxes some more
• spend even more money
  
• shit yourself when the economy take a down-turn
• borrow money
• continue spending
• look puzzled when the money runs out
  

It's a favoured phrase of many that Labour governments always end with the money running out, and we shouldn't be surprised. Socialism has been tested to destruction, and anyone who thinks it's worth another try should be kept firmly away from the country's finances. And hit, often, with large sticks.

But what WILL Cameronomics look like? The Tory right want lots of juicy tax cuts and public spending slashed to bits. As do I - taxes are too high, public spending is wildly out of control. I can almost picture the manic gleam in John Redwood's eye as he decimates the obscenely bloated public sector.

Unfortunately Gordon Brown is pursuing a scorched earth policy, making a bad situation intentionally worse. The finances that David Cameron inherits are certain to be worse than those bequeathed by Sir John Major to Tony Blair. This is certain to tie Cameron's hands quite considerably with his scope for swift tax cuts, although long term the frankly immoral portion of our earnings the government steals simply has to come down. This will annoy the Tory right, and indeed anyone else who knows the first thing about economics - how Dave deals with this in his first term will be the most interesting test of Ms Cooper's "Cameronomics".