You're Living In Fantasy Land, Darling

So the economy is well placed to deal with current 'difficulties', is it, Darling? The chancellor is living in his own little fantasy world, out of touch with reality and following his boss's mantra, as the country pays the price of a decade of follies.

Is that the same economy where the government stood by and deliberately allowed the UK manufacturing base to go to the wall, while manufacturing in countries like Germany and Japan were encouraged to flourish and go from strength to strength? 

Is that the same economy where the government placed such a 'light touch' on credit and borrowing, to deliberately create the 'feel good factor' which is now coming home to roost in a debt culture with disastrous consequences?

Is that the same economy which removed the financial checks on credit and loans and allowed the money lenders to adopt dodgy business models, with no regulations, until Northern Rock came crashing down around your ears?

Is that the same economy, where government spending has been allowed to get out of hand, with billions of pounds squandered on silly schemes just to support your half-baked domestic and foreign policies? 

Is that the same economy where the government sold-off most of the gold reserves at a knock-down price and has spent the last ten years borrowing to create 'easy money', to dig itself out of an economic hole, while the true cost has been kept off the public accounts books with smoke and mirrors? 

Speaking at a news conference today, ahead of Brown's grilling by MPs, chancellor Darling said: "For the last ten years we have had strong growth - although we are going through a hard time, our economy is better placed now than it ever was to deal with these problems."

Go on, blame it all on the global economy again, Darling. 

The truth is we never had a strong economy. We just lived in an economic fantasy world. And now we are paying the price.