Larry Elliott points out that current economic indicators are so poor that Osborne has been presented with an opportunity to rethink bizarre and dangerous coalition strategy:
"the world economy is clearly slowing; both the OECD and the International Monetary Fund are now warning against over-aggressive tightening of policy; Britain's economy is both unbalanced and weakening; and in less than six weeks' time the government is planning to announce the biggest programme of spending cuts since the 1930s. Osborne has now been given a perfect excuse for moderating his plans. If he carries on regardless, he risks making the biggest economic blunder since John Major took Britain into the Exchange Rate Mechanism".
Osborne could reasonably (Osborne, reason? I know I know) argue that since the emergency Budget was announced in June, the economy has deteriorated to such an extent that austerity must be postponed. Probably safe to assume that the media would largely overlook the causation i.e. the Budget is principally to blame for collapsing confidence. That he won't pursue such a strategy confirms (again) the fundamentally ideological nature of the cuts.
Stephen Boyd
The blog of the 'There is a Better Way' campaign by STUC staff about policy issues that are, or should be, in the news and guest contributors on issues of social justice. Written from a STUC perspective, contributions will often cover areas where there is yet no settled STUC policy and go into areas in more detail than our formal decisions. We welcome debate and we don’t expect everyone to agree with us, but we will remove any comments that are offensive, irrelevant or otherwise annoy.
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