The Economy

[DVL418]

RE: The Economy
Yet more grim economic news published today - another dollop of evidence that George Osbourne's strategy has failed.

The public knows it. The International Monetary Fund knows it. The credit rating agencies know it. Even George Osborne knows it, although he can't bring himself to admit as much.

How do things stand for the economy after two and a half years with the coalition government at the helm?

National output has just contracted for the fourth quarter in the last five. The only quarter of 2012 in which the economy expanded was the one that contained the London Olympics, and unfortunately for the chancellor these sort of jamborees happen once every half century rather than once every three months.

During 2012 as a whole the economy registered no growth at all - zero!

We will get all sorts of excuses trotted out to explain away why it isn't the Government's fault that three years after the recession first ended the UK economy is still contracting. Sure, the crisis in the eurozone hasn't helped, rising commodity prices (bigger dividends for City Fat Cats?) have raised business costs and acted as a brake on consumer spending.

But Osbourne has sucked demand out of the economy by raising taxes, cutting welfare and taking the axe to capital spending programmes.

Politically as well as economically, these figures are a disaster for the Coalition. It ensures the next few months will now be spent squabbling whether the UK is heading for a triple dip and how soon the credit rating agencies will strip Britain of its AAA credit rating. When that happens – as it almost certainly will – Osborne's strategy will be in complete tatters.

And what is really frightening is that we have to endure two more years of his blinkered incompitence.