We risk making mistakes of the 70s all over again

IT IS said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

- Duncan Barkes

Chancellor Rachel Reeves would do well to take note. Her spending review revealed that Whitehall budgets would increase overall by 2.3%. Not once did she mention how any of this would be paid for.

The next day, the Office for National Statistics released the latest Gross Domestic Product figures, showing that the UK economy had shrunk by 0.3%. For a Chancellor who is pinning her hopes on growing the economy, this is a devastating blow.

It looks like she will need to raise taxes later this year to fund her borrowing addiction. And if we continue at this rate, our economy will be trashed.

Am I alone in fearing it is starting to feel like the 1970s all over again, given that, in 1976, Britain was forced to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund for a financial bailout? I suspect not.

Funnily enough, it was a Labour government attempting to manage the country's finances back then when the plea for cash was made. While the circumstances were slightly different, the essence of an economy heading towards crisis remains the same.

I grew up in the 1970s a decade that was chaotic, both politically and culturally. There are some timely comparisons between then and now.