So much for the recession being made in the Eurozone. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that net trade is down and the largest fall in exports is to non-EU countries.
While I don’t believe the criticism Osborne has received is in any way a distraction from the wider issues (if anything it’s an indictment of his inability to empathise with disabled shoppers), I thought it worth a quick look at just how out of touch this government is policy wise.
This week, the Chancellor spoke to staff working at a supermarket depot in Sittingbourne, Kent, about changes to the tax and benefits system. But would staff at Sittingbourne really be better off as a result of Osborne’s tax and benefits changes?
In a sign of how out of touch he has become, George Osborne yesterday said the Welsh government’s opposition to the coalition’s welfare reforms was “unbelievable”.
Families will be an average of £891 worse off from next week because of tax rises and cuts to tax credits and benefits introduced since 2010, according to new figures.
Of all the decisions the chancellor has made, the one he may be regret the most is making the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) independent.
The below graph shows the trajectory of the US and UK economies under both George Bush and Barack Obama and Gordon Brown and David Cameron respectively.
It pretty much speaks for itself.
Just under three quarters of voters do not believe the prime minister and chancellor appreciate the rising cost of living, according to a poll conducted by Survation for Progressive Polling.
If Ed Miliband want to differentiate Labour from the Tories, it could start by showcasing its environmentally friendly economic policies.
Within just three months the OBR’s forecast for growth in 2013 has been halved. The economy now looks set to be smaller at the time of the next election than it was when the crash hit in 2008 and our recovery remains the slowest in over a century. When the government took office they thought this year would see the economy expand by 2.9 per cent – their own forecasts now show we won’t reach that rate of growth by 2017.
The economic case for a new approach has never been stronger.
