George Osborne 1. Christine Lagarde 0.

[ladybirder]

Well done for sticking to your guns George. Any ABers want to join me in congratulating him? He was right and the IMF were wrong.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10884632/Do-I-have-to-go-on-my-knees-grovelling-apology-from-IMF-head-for-incorrect-warnings-on-UK-economy.html

[naomi24]

Me.... and I expect Mikey to be along very shortly to give credit where credit is due. :o)

[jim360]

Great. Just what we needed. A chancellor who has missed every single one of his own targets set in 2010, and now he can feel free to gloat somehow.

[naomi24]

^There's one who doesn't give credit where credit is due.

[jim360]

Hehe. I'm not sure that George Osborne can really claim credit for all that much. And, like I say, he has certainly failed to achieve his own targets. "Judge me by teh AAA rating", and we lost that; "Judge me on reducing the deficit" and it's only barely come down; and so on. How much of the recovery is down to his policies is, frankly, a moot point.

Not that Labour would have done much better, mind. All I'm saying is that I'm not looking forward to seeing his smug face for the next year or so!

[naomi24]

Faces aren't really the issue - but going on the track record of the alternative, rather his than the one that could replace it.

[jim360]

Yeah, that's the worst of it, really.

I don't get the Labour Party. In response to their 2010 defeat and the disastrous Brown government, they bring in fresh faces... of the two people who were Brown's chief advisors/ allies. How does that make any sense?!

[ladybirder]

Thank you Naomi, and only one not agreeing. Amazing, I expected many more.

[Peter Pedant]

.

The froggie civil servants are like that - " so I was wrong so what you want me do ? so you want me to do whaaaat ? "

They have a central training skool to churn them out - Ecole Nationale d'Administration. They are all like that and are called Enarques - even the French refer to their manner and bearing as 'imperial'

[Quizmonster]

"How much of the recovery is down to his policies is, frankly, a moot point."
Well said, Jim. Sadly, that won't stop his insistence that his "long-term economic policies are working" at every opportunity, despite his having missed every self-set target to date.

[Peter Pedant]

QM: "How much of the recovery is down to his policies is, frankly, a moot point."

IN another life, I tripled the capital base of my association in five years and this was said about my remarkable achievement ( how much is down to PP ? ).
I pointed out that if I had managed to reduce the capital from £9m down to £3m., people would NOT be saying: well it really isnt down to PP, what a good fellow ......
and I have to say my colleagues agreed on that one....

[youngmafbog]

"Judge me by teh AAA rating", and we lost that;


not strictly true is it. Or dont you count S&P ratings ?

[jim360]

Well I suppose yes, strictly we only partially lost AAA. I don't think it matters all that much perhaps, but the point is that George Osborne had set targets and missed them. Sometimes by some distance, too. I don't think he should be celebrating this, at least not as a personal achievement.

[Quizmonster]

My guess is that Osborne is just like the participants in the current "cat and dog" act in the Cabinet...May and Gove...setting out a stall for the leadership in the event of 2015 not going to Tory plan. Regardless of its relevance, the message is, "Look how tough and effective I am!"

[viv38]

Congratulate George Osborne, not flamin' likely !!!

[Svejk]

double-dip :D triple-dip :D

[dave50]

How can the opposition on the one hand criticise George Osborne for failing to reduce the deficit but yet in the other hand go on about the 'savage cuts'? Cant have it both ways.