The scale of Brown’s broken economy

Two analyses of the economy today, one fanciful and one spot-on. Gordon Brown says

“I am confident that we can get through these difficult times and meet these challenges a stronger, more secure and fairer country then ever before.”

Why is he confident? The cure for this will require the precise opposite to his policies – and this is what he shows no sign of beginning to grasp. The UK economy has buckled under the weight of the debt Brown has rung up. The speech of recovery will be dictated by how debt-burdened countries are going into recession. Britain starts – starts – with a 3% deficit, and this may become a 7% deficit by 2010. More Brownite policies could take us back to IMF bailout territory of the 1970s.

George Osborne strikes precisely the right note in his Guardian interview today.