The Ukraine war, and subsequent additional Iran war by Kushner and Trump in parallel have shoved up the cost of borrowing from the pandemic years far beyond anything Sunak, Starmer, Hunt and Reeves did. Truss and Kwarteng poured petrol on it but it was still only a segment of the overall picture given Hunt cleared up all the IEA’s projectile vomit.
Austerity didn’t decrease the debt 2010-15, flattened growth, squashed public services, and will only push lower earners onto UC with more PSRB impact.
The welfare bill needs to come down, we all agree on that at least, which includes the triple lock. The economy isn’t doing badly in isolation but the wider indicators are 1970s-esque because of the two parallel wars, limited straits access, Houthi attacks on Saudi, and nervousness around global instability. Trump getting blocked in next month would help matters as Congress could pull them out of Kushner and Mad Ben’s war.