PFI started under the leadership of Conservative PM John Major. I don't agree with it, but the reason Labour carried on with it is because it's a neat accountin

PFI started under the leadership of Conservative PM John Major. I don't agree with it, but the reason Labour carried on with it is because it's a neat accounting trick for hiding capital spending. Tories have criticised Labour capital spending since forever, so it's not surprising that the most right leaning Labour administration in years carried on using the new trick the Tories invented for hiding capital spending. Also the financial incompetence thing is a Daily Mail meme, the statistics show that Labour administrations have been consistently better at growing the economy and reducing government deficits since WW2, 2008 bank bailout notwithstanding. But you are not going to seriously argue that the Conservative party, which receives huge donations from the financial industry, would have let those banks go bust? And the deregulation that allowed the 2008 financial collapse to happen all occurred under the conservative governments of Thatcher and Major. The economy does better under governments that spend money because it has a lubricating effect. Surely it's obvious that if the NHS is the biggest employer in the country and you don't give anyone that works for it a pay rise for 7 years, it's going to affect the spending power of a significant block of consumers, NHS employees are somewhere between 7-12% of the working population of the UK. The doctors, paramedics, nurses etc will spend less in all the little businesses like pubs, hairdressers, day trips, builders... etc.