George Osborne’s speech in six graphs

George Osborne normally shines at Tory conferences. A historian by training, Osborne knows the power of narrative and he had a clear one for the activists today: the recovery started when he took office and its progress has been extraordinary. Many of his claims were well-founded, some less so. Here’s my selection.

Let’s start with his statement that ‘Britain is the fastest-growing most job-creating most deficit-reducing country on earth. Britain we did this together.’

1. Job-creating? Yes, that’s his greatest single boast: the below chart shows the job creation record versus the forecasts

2. Fastest-growing? Well yes, this year. But taking previous years’ performance into account, the record is not quite so glistening.

3. Deficit-reducing? The Chancellor had to abandon his own timetable for that some time ago.

4.