Ritchie, with his usual lack of grace, writes of the ICAEW's Michael Izza:

What has been forgotten? Is the man a fool? Did he genuinely think there was some mighty Venn diagram with the state sector in one circle and the private sector and the two never overlapped? What sort of fantasy did he live in?

Some of us have, of course, been aware of this for some time. It’s a shame the micro-economically obsessed (as most accountants are) didn’t open their eyes and little earlier when demanding the destruction of the state sector on which their well being depends, as they’re now discovering.

If they want they can join me on 26 March at the mass rally in London against the cuts.

I wonder what, if anything, the poor Mr Izza has ever done to offend Ritchie? Is he still harbouring a grudge because they are sceptical about country by country reporting?

But there's a more serious point here. In the run-up to, during, and after the financial crisis people like me have been arguing that we must both make essential savings in the public services and make cuts to some services to allow the private sector to recover. The basic point here is that every pound of tax wasted is a pound that could have been invested in the private sector, because the private and public sectors are connected.

So, it's nice to see Ritchie concede the point.

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Filed under: Economics, Institutes with tags country by country reporting, deficit, icaew, michael izza, private sector, public sector, richard murphy, ukuncut