The economist worshipped by Labour… who gave Britain its dangerous debt addiction

Hamish McRae's column argues that both main parties have carried Keynes's ideas too far, and the body treats debt as a cross-party failing. The headline goes beyond this. It singles out Labour as the party that worships Keynes and blames Keynes himself for Britain's debt, when the body says the problem is the misuse of his ideas by both Labour and the Conservatives. The argument itself is not a finding.

Opinion piece: read for false claims of fact and for fairness to the people it names, not for its opinions.

1. Headline goes beyond the article

   Minor

   “who gave Britain its dangerous debt addiction”

   Why this matters

   The words "who gave Britain its dangerous debt addiction" make Keynes himself the cause of the national debt.

   The impression it gives

   A reader takes it that the column blames Keynes directly for Britain's debt.

   The context

   The body blames the misapplication of his ideas by later politicians. It says the problem is that Keynesian advocacy has been taken too far, and it ends by suggesting Keynes himself would have changed his mind.

   How we know

   • Elsewhere in the article“the misapplication of the ideas of the economist John Maynard Keynes”
   • Elsewhere in the article“Keynsian advocacy of a government using fiscal policy to manage demand has been taken too far”

   Show it in the article