Surely Chris, a function of government is management of the economy? The prosperity of a country is completely dependent on the economy. What no party or government should do is manage the economy in reckless, narrow minded, vote winning fashion. The policies of appeasement and unwarranted wage and social welfare rises, coupled with reliance on one-off property taxes are the reason we are where we are today. The ecomony should have been managed in a sustainable manner. A first year economics student would be able to tell us that the strength of economies are cyclic and that it was inevitable that a recession was going to come along. So where is our little stash for a rainy day? Why weren't policies introduced to move away from large one off taxes e.g. stamp duty & VRT, which were dependent on economic growth? The answer is simple... greed. Unwarranted, unnecessary and self-fulfilling intervention should never take place, but proper management with nothing but the countries long term prosperity is what a government is there for.