" Is that true? Jeez, we are in trouble then! "
Yes, as Dannny Finkelstein recalls in the Times today, back in the rate-capping era of the Thatcherite 80s, there was a campaign by many councils to fight back against the cuts. However it so happened that the GLC's cap actually enabled them to INCREASE spending. McDonnell at that time was the GLC's finance chief and his plan was to fiddle the figures and pretend the opposite. This was too much even for Ken, who complained to McDonnell: "We're going to look like the biggest ****ing liars since Goebbels" (Ken was plainly an expert on the Nazis). Eventually McDonnell, his reputation in tatters with his own party colleagues, had to quit.