The same problem applies to the fiscal rules – the government’s stated aim of balancing day-to-day spending and reducing debt. It will do so by showing how we will manage the largest long-term pressures on public spending. When the Tories trebled the national debt, markets didn’t stop lending to them, they just charged more. That would show investors that the Government was managing one of its largest long-term spending pressures. Fiscal credibility comes from confronting tomorrow’s spending pressures, not adjusting how we measure them.