If confidence and rhetoric were elements of GDP the UK would be flying high on Osborne’s Treasury regime. But at first sight today the chronic difficulty of over estimating growth and tax receipts and the under-estimate of costs of essential expenses remain problems unresolved. So, as predicted, his previous forecasts have again been proved wrong. Beyond that this blog has a policy of not commentating on Osborne’s budgets straight away. In takes a few days for the devil to emerge from the detail and for key figures to unravel.
There is no more difficult role than the Leader of the Opposition jumping up and replying to the Chancellor’s speech, without the ability to prepare any more than an outline in advance. For that reason few historically are worth remembering. Corbyn’s effort today was surprisingly robust and detailed. It will have done him no harm and while it will most likely not be remembered, it certainly won’t be remembered because he fluffed it. He actually did rather well.