It is probably unfair to say that the Queen’s Speech will have nothing to do with the economy: we are, after all, expecting a deregulation bill among others, which the Treasury hopes will speed things up for small businesses. But if George Osborne looks a little distracted today, it’s probably because his mind is on events outside Parliament. The International Monetary Fund’s team arrives in London today for the start of a fortnight’s inspection of the UK economy. The Chancellor must feel sympathy with teachers who fear the approach of their school’s Ofsted inspection.
Like teachers who suspect their Ofsted visit won’t go their way, Osborne’s allies have recently started to question the wisdom of the IMF, an organisation he has previously set great store by. Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard’s suggestion in April that the Coalition may have reached the point at which it would have to ‘sit down and say maybe our assumptions were not right and maybe we have to slow down’ provoked a round of briefings about the internal IMF battles over austerity.
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