When the chancellor George Osborne entered the Treasury after the Conservatives entered coalition in 2010 he deployed two main arguments for what would become his defining strategy.

First, he told the country Britain needed to tighten its belt because the alternative was to end up requiring an international bailout, like Greece.

Secondly, the government was simply doing way too much. If the state got out of certain markets, the private sector, which had been crowded out, would come booming back.

This policy of 'austerity' has been much argued over. Where was the evidence to suggest it would work? Has it really been successful elsewhere? What were the alternatives? Did Osborne's strategy even count as austerity anyway?

As Mark Blyth explains, the idea of austerity has a long and notorious history dating back to the founding days of modern economics and the nation state.

He states that for the argument against austerity to be won, there must be a willingness for those currently in power to change their minds. Alternatively, there must be a generational change at the top of the world's major financial institutions such as the IMF.

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