Growth figure hits 7%: Tax cuts the worst way to use windfall

THE combination of an uplifting growth rate of 7% and an imminent election is a heady, explosive mix.

Add the pay-back expectations expressed with such virulence by a considerable section of the electorate and echoed by an exploitative opposition — and some senior public servants who should know better — and risk of reaching a situation that would be, in military terms, described as Defcon 1.

Those three realities combine in a lethal cocktail for a country where so many of the services that define a functioning, caring and successful society are not fit for purpose.