Quote XBrettKennyX="XBrettKennyX"Utter tripe.
Labour were in power at the crest of an economic upside, 1991-97 was one of the worst post war recessions.'"
You really, really ought to do a bit of research before making yourself look a complete twit.
Here is a list of recessions in the UK since 1900:
[urlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_recessions_in_the_United_Kingdom[/url
As you can see the recession in the 90's lasted a total of 5 quarters in the years 1990-1992. That is 1 1/4 years not 6 years!
What that means is - if you look at that graph I posted is that the Tories ran a deficit when we were not in recession for about 4 1/2 years. So you do not have a point at all as they ran large deficits on an economic upside as well.
Then again I suppose you could be trying to excuse the Tory deficit of the 90's as spending their way out of recession (we were no longer in!) but that can't be right or you would be calling for the same thing now wouldn't you instead of harping on about paying off the "credit card bill"?
What is also interesting about the list of recessions table is the "causes" column. Both the 1990-1992 recessions and the 2008-2009 recessions were caused by external factors. US savings and loan collapse in 1990-1992 and the financial crisis in 2008. In both cases the recessions lasted 1 1/4 years.
The causes of the latest recession are Fiscal retrenchment and the Euro crisis which means it is at least partly "Made in Britain" by the current government trying to pay off the "credit card bill" as you simplistically call it too quickly. It is also the first double dip recession since 1975.
So it seems to me in your attempt to excuse what went on in the 1990's you are arguing against current government policy. You seem a tad confused.