United Kingdom
Fiscal conservatism in the UK was arguably most popular during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, who, after a number of years of deficit spending under the previous Labour government, advocated spending cuts and selective tax increases to balance the budget. However, despite being elected in 1979, Britain's budget was not balanced until 1988 – and from 1979 to 1987 the government deficit exceeded those seen during James Callaghan's time as prime minister.
In 2010, as a result of the deterioration in the UK's public finances caused by the Late-2000s recession and by the European sovereign debt crisis, the Liberal Democrat-Conservative Coalition embarked on an austerity programme – featuring a combination of spending cuts and tax rises – in an attempt to halve the deficit, and completely eliminate the structural deficit over the five-year parliament.
Read more about this topic: Fiscal Conservatism
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