Hamish McRae: Gradually Miss Prudence becomes Mr Spend-a-lot
Despite having less revenue than he expected, Mr Brown has kept at a pre-set rate
Published: 06 December 2005
This is not a black hole in the Government's finances, nor indeed in Gordon Brown's reputation for fiscal probity. Rather, both face a steady relentless deterioration, a gradual chipping away of what was five years ago an extremely strong position and is now becoming a progressively weaker one.
The poor growth figure for this year is old news. By acknowledging that growth this year would be about 1.75 per cent instead of the 3.0-3.5 range he predicted at the time of the Budget, he was simply bringing the Treasury forecast into line with the independent ones. The odd thing is that he persisted for so long with an over-optimistic line. Two months ago, he was still talking growth of 2-2.5 per cent.
Article Length: 1179 words (approx.)
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