When did Gordon Brown become Chancellor of the Exchequer?

The saviour of the UK economy used to try and imply that before he took control the UK economy was in a dire state and that the boom was down to his economic genius. Now even the most blinkered of commentators realise this was bullshit and the BBC had the above interesting graph to illustrate the point. Look, the economy started it's long period of growth in the second half of 1993, just a year after John Major won his first general election (something that Gordon Brown will never manage).

The BBC report that:

"The UK economy contracted 0.8% between April and June, more than double the figure economists had expected.

While an improvement on the previous quarter, the figures may indicate that the recovery could take longer than previously had been thought.

The contraction was much less than the 2.4% seen in the first quarter but was still above analysts' 0.3% prediction.

The latest figures take the annual rate of decline to 5.6%, the biggest fall since records began in 1955. "

And manage to find someone at the Treasury willing to make a ridiculous prediction:

"Liam Byrne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that he was cautious but confident that growth was going to return at the end of the year.

"We are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, but what today's figures show is that the pace of the downturn is easing," he said. "

So the decline hasn't stopped, but the rate of decline has eased, wow I feel better already, don't you? The biggest decrease in the UK economy in over 50 years and Liam Byrne tries to look on the bright side of life.


Look folks the UK economy is severely screwed and the public finances are in a far worse state than this most disingenuous Labour government will admit. In the last (delayed) Budget, the government forecast that the UK economy would decline by between 3.25% to 3.75% in 2009. With the fall to date that would mean around 1.5% growth in each of the next two quarters to get back to that predicted level of decline. That is just not going to happen and that means that spending cuts, rises in taxation and maybe running to the IMF look even more likely. So when will Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling come clean as to the real state of the UK's finances? My feeling is that they won't and that it will be left to David Cameron and his Chancellor to reveal the true figures soon after they are elected next May. The true figures will be a real shock to the general population but they must be revealed and the blame for the appalling state of the UK economy laid squarely at the feet of Gordon Brown. One of the aims of the first 100 days of a Conservative government is to ensure that the truth about Labour's mismanagement of the UK's public finances becomes known to everyone so that the bile that the BBC will try and throw at the incoming Conservative government will be diluted by the truth.