Alistair Darling was terribly proud of the Government’s record in his Budget speech today. But he again dodged the question of how he’ll get the deficit under control. Ruth Lea has called this his “do little” Budget. With the country still facing hundreds of billions in borrowing, the few billion being saved are virtually neglible. There are huge downside risks for those borrowing forecasts as we get onto the more contentious growth projections from 2011-12 onwards, which are way above City expectations. And everything will get much worse if borrowing costs rise – Mike Denham has explored the frightening possibilities in a blog for the TPA.
We had a proud boast that Britain has “the fastest deficit reduction plan of any G7 country”, a massive Brownie. That might have something to do with having the biggest deficit in the G7.
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