Worst recovery in history: British GDP shrinks by 0.3 per cent

Now we know why David Cameron delivered his Europe speech on Wednesday. It’s time for bad headlines again: the GDP figures just announced show that the British economy is contracting yet again — by 0.3 per cent in the final three months of last year (see above graph).

Now, you’ll hear a lot of people tell you today that quarterly data does not matter. The ONS say this is a fallback from the Olympics, which sucked economic growth forward. And they’re right: the ONS usually revises quarterly data, often dramatically. What matters more is the long-term trend, and this is pretty appalling. It now seems inarguable that Britain is going through the worst recovery in history. Slower and longer even than the 1930s.

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Ross Clark

Britain is living beyond its means

The petty pace of the recovery is, in some respects, deliberate. George Osborne has chosen a slow path of consolidation — cutting less over five years (3.2