The election of Francois Hollande as President of France at the same time as the Greek elections in May acted as a rallying call for many eager to reject austerity. Plan A for Austerity was ripped up, and Plan B was on. But should we be posing the question in terms of either austerity or growth? Hard labour or holidays? Many of the rejections of austerity across Europe today seem to have something of a ‘stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off’ character to them. Is it irresponsible or just ambitious to argue that we should worry about growth first and (relatively smaller) debts later? This Battle of Ideas debate may provide a wake up call.
