John Redwood

4301 days ago

UK to lose AAA rating and Osborne to lose his job?

Today’s UK GDP numbers are disastrous for George Osborne. Folks do not expect to like Tory chancellors (except perhaps Ken Clarke in his fat, cigar smoking and whisky drinking pomp) but they expect them to be competent. Osborne is now going to be the chancellor who sees the UK lose its AAA rating and it is going to happen soon.

That we still have this rating is a joke. Somehow Osborne has managed to persuade us all that he is curbing Government spending ( he is not it is rising in actual terms, in real terms and per head of population) and that he is tackling the deficit ( he is not) and so getting national debt under control ( he is not). His claims were based on assumptions for growth which were, shall we say, optimistic.

---