Austerity in the EU

Insightful graphic on the well-known econ blog Marginal Revolution about government spending in five European Union members which have been following the austerity path.  As you can easily see, spending in France and the UK has continued to increase every year, whereas spending moved from rapid growth to flatline in Italy.  Government spending has actually fallen in Greece and Spain over the last two years but remains well above where it was 10 years ago.  And these are countries with little to any population growth.