Regular readers will know I have been a long-time critic of the fiscal rules that successive British governments have invoked as part of a pretence that they were being somehow responsible fiscal managers. The problem was that in trying to keep within these artificial thresholds, governments would do the exact opposite to what a responsible fiscal manager would do, which is preserve the integrity of public infrastructure, ensure public services reflected need, and steer the nation in a direction where it was able to meet the challenges that beset it. This period of ‘fiscal rule’ domination has been defined by relentless fiscal austerity and a degradation of living standards as successive governments pursued the neoliberal agendas. Now, it seems the British Labour government is finally realising that it cannot achieve its aims while retaining the fiscal rules they so tenaciously claimed were essential. Back when John McDonnell was the shadow chancellor I told him the rules were unachievable given his policy ambitions. His support crew – academics and apparatchiks vicariously slandered me for running that line. They were wrong and the current decision by the Chancellor to alter the rules proves that. But it also proves how ridiculous these rules are anyway.