George Osborne is the king of ‘black holes’. So why does he attack Labour?

‘Labour plans have a £27 billion black hole,’ says the Sunday Times, quoting  analysis from George Osborne’s Treasury.  If true, that’s the first piece of good economic news we’ll have heard from Labour. Osborne’s black holes have been way, way bigger – well over £100 billion so far. In his excellent new book about journalese, Robert Hutton offers this definition of black hole:

‘A point in space so dense it creates a gravitational field so strong that not even light can escape. Or, in newspapers, a gap. Especially in finance, where it typically refers to any funding shortfall over £1 million.’

Parties love casting a slide rule over each other’s policies, declaring that they don’t add up and use phrases like ‘black hole’. But that was back in the days of balanced budgets.  George Osborne is not so keen on them now. He has torn up his plan to abolish the deficit, and offers no date by which he’d balance the books.