Wherein Heather Mallick Makes a Stark Choice (For Britain)

Austerity or oblivion? Mallick chooses oblivion

As many of the world's advanced states trudge forward, economic reality is presenting them with a choice:

Austerity or oblivion.

Britain, who owes 64.6% of its Gross Domestic Product to foreign creditors is one of those countries that is facing some tough choices in terms of its budget.

Prime Minister David Cameron and his coalition government partner, Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg, have responded to Britain's looming fiscal crisis in kind. They plan to cut as much as 40% of Britain's national budget in order to get things back under control there.

For her own part, Mallick objects entirely. She wishes to join her voices to those of thousands of Greek and French protesters who have made their decision between austerity or oblivion, and chosen oblivion.

Rather than pare back their demands on the public purse -- at least in the short term -- Mallick and her compatriots have decided to demand that the states in question stay the course toward economic disaster.

After this, there will be no more: an economic collapse that could raze the British economy to the ground. They don't care.

Not that they have no solutions of their own. It just so happens that their medicine would be far more harmful than the disease.

They imagine undercutting core functions of government that they don't care for in favour of maintaining spending to extraneous functions of government that they do. They imagine taxing the living hell out of banks and corporations, not seeming to care where the kind of economic growth necessary to ensure Britain's long-term prosperity will come from.

Canadians already know well the kind of pressure David Cameron and his government are under. When Canada was on the brink of fiscal insolvency in the 1990s, the Canadian government was forced to make some hard decisions as well.

The Jean Chretien government chose to cut things such as education, health care, and provincial transfers. It may have never happened if not for the pressures applied by the Reform Party and individuals such as Andrew Coyne, but the important detail is that it did happen.

15 years later Canada has the fiscal strength to weather what some have described as a perfect economic storm.

In time, Britain may be able to boast the same strength. But not if Heather Mallick has her way. In her own mind, she's chosen for Britain. Fortunately for her, she doesn't have to live there.