Great Scott!

ALISTAIR Darling took Britain ‘Back to the Future’ when he promised to kick-start the country’s ailing economy.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced plans for a £20bn rescue package in his Pre-budget report last Monday in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Yet Doc Darling and the Treasury Office, featuring Michael J Fox look-a-like Yvette Cooper, are taking a huge gamble in their bid to spend their way out of recession.

The deal, which is more akin to strategies of 1970s socialist governments rather than New Labour economics, includes slashing VAT from 17.5% to 15%, and bringing forward £3bn of public construction projects.

Yet it all rests on the optimistic assumption the economy will pick up by 2011, just in time for a 0.5% rise in national insurance and a hike in taxes to replenish the kitty.

But what if the recession continues? Higher unemployment means more benefits payouts and the hidden tax bombshell is hardly an incentive to get back to work. Let’s not forget that year upon year the aging population puts a greater strain on public services, something politicians need to budget for.

Part of the reason we're in this mess is because banks offered mortgage deals to people who couldn't actually afford houses, who in turn purchased expensive holidays and oversized 4x4s on cheap credit.

Is it really wise to for the government to follow suit and splash cash it doesn't have?

Whilst Labour deserves respect for their decisiveness and for brightening up the bland political consensus of recent years, there is an uneasy feeling that history may repeat itself.

In 1976, the then Chancellor Denis Healey went cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because Britain’s economy was, well - fucked. Let us pray the current man in charge of the purse-strings, with equally obscure eyebrows does not have to follow in his footsteps...