Labour preparing for IMF Bailout - Britain Bankrupt?

Today's Telegraph is reporting that a Labour 'Senior Cabinet Member' has told them that applying for International Monetary Fund aid wouldn't be anything to be too concerned about. This is, of course, nonsense. Getting your country into a state where it cannot pay its bills without outside help is disastrous. Apart from the huge loss of national credibility and international confidence, IMF aid always comes with stringent conditions, so we would be outsourcing our economic policy to unelected foreign bankers. It is a huge admission of abject failure by a government and when Labour last did it in 1976 it took decades for them to recover any reputation for economic competence. That they have brought us to this is an indication of just how badly they have mismanaged the economy, despite inheriting an excellent position from John Major and benefitting from a decade-long global boom. Note that we are the only comparible country talking in this way, so all of that guff about Britian being best-placed to withstand a global downturn is exposed as simple spin.