Standing in for Mark Littlewood, Andrew Allison, Head of Campaigns of Popular Conservatism writes that what we need from politicians of all stripes is frank honesty about the parlous state of the public finances. 

August used to be known as the 'silly season'. Traditionally, there was a paucity of serious news stories to report as the country went on its summer holidays, so newspapers filled those column inches with stories that would not normally have found their way in print. 

These days, politics never pauses for breath. The migrant crisis and economic meltdown continues to dominate the headlines, and we at PopCon are as busy as ever commenting on all the major stories in the news. 

If anything sums up the inability of politicians of all stripes over the last few years to make difficult decisions it is the economic crisis we have sleep-walked our way into. 

As we saw just a few weeks ago, Labour MPs couldn't even support modest cuts to the welfare budget. They talk about the apocryphal £22 billion back hole as if it were the end of the world, but now Rachel Reeves has managed to dig herself a bigger hole - around £50 billion - as tax receipts fall and spending continues to rise. But even that is small change compared to the size of the overall government debt. The figures are eye watering. 

As my colleague Mark Littlewood pointed out on GB News this week, the Government spends more on interest payments to service its accumulated debt than it does on education. And please note, that is just the interest payments. The amount we owe never goes down - only up.

It's the equivalent of you or me maxing out a credit card and then getting a new one and repeating the process over and over again until more and more of our income is spent on interest payments. Eventually, no-one will be willing to lend us any more money and we would go bust.

I once spoke to a group of Conservative students about PopCon and politics in general. For reasons that will become apparent, I won't tell you where this was. I told them that if we are to balance the books and start paying off debt (not just interest), the Government will have to reduce spending by around £200 billion a year. Cue the look of horror on their faces. "But how can you do that?", I was asked. I said that as welfare was the largest budget by far, that would have to be cut. "You can't do that", was the general opinion of the room and again the look of horror was etched on their faces.

One student suggested that the Bank of England should buy up all Government debt which would mean that the Government would not have to repay its debts. And when the debt accumulated again (which it would), the Bank of England should repeat the process ad infinitum so the Government could spend at will and never have to pay for its recklessness. I muttered something about Venezuela and wondered if I was addressing a meeting of the Conservative Society or a bunch of Marxists! 

On 13th May 1940, shortly after he became Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill told the House of Commons that “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” He didn't sugarcoat the pill. He didn't say that we should all hold hands and sing a chorus of Kumbaya to defeat Nazi Germany and not to worry because all will be well. No, he was honest and the country appreciated his frank honesty.

It is frank honesty about the parlous state of the public finances that we need now. But which politician is willing to be honest with the voters and give them the unvarnished truth? As I see it, not one of the major political parties is willing to have that frank conversation with the voters and until one of them is, nothing will change until the economy metaphorically falls off a cliff and we have to go cap in hand to the IMF for a bailout. 

Referring to Stanley Baldwin, who, in 1935, still resisted a vigorous response to the threat of Nazi Germany, Churchill famously said, "Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened." 

We at PopCon are willing to tell the truth and we know that our supporters are, too. We need more Churchills as we already have far too many Baldwins. 

Keep fighting the good fight!