Headwinds

In what seems a pretty transparent attempt to manage expectations on the economy, both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have warned that the continued slump in the Europe and other global headwinds, will impact our ability to maintain our rate of growth.  Labour, predictably, accused the Government of getting their excuses in early.  But they have a point.  Conservatives, rightly, accused Labour of failing to fix the roof whilst the sun was shining.  Government expenditure has not been cut to the extent necessary because of the ruinous attempt to compete in the equality and social justice stakes. Instead of radical reform we have limped through the last four years with the same broken model (except for valiant attempts to reform welfare by tackling the poverty trap). Now faced with spiralling public debt and less than planned headway on cutting the deficit, how the Chancellor must be wishing that he had taken more difficult decisions earlier and picked more than the low hanging fruit, indeed, replanted the orchard with fewer trees!  The attention on the government finances, just a couple of days before the by-election, is unfortunate but with the cat out of the bag, the economy may not be the vote winner that was hitherto expected.  It is insignificant comfort that blame for timidity rests largely with Liberal Democrats.