Coalition Economic Strategy Under Fire After Osborne's Autumn Statement

http://news.sky.com/home/politics/article/16120010

Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement, as expected, received a scathing response from his Labour shadow, Ed Balls.

The Shadow Chancellor told the Commons that the Coalition's plan to reduce the deficit they inherited from Labour had failed 'colossally'.

And indeed Mr Osborne made no attempt to sugar-coat Britain's economic woes.

The UK was almost certainly heading towards another recession, he said, with the current crisis in the eurozone likely to have a severe knock-on effect on Britain's economy.

Not only did the Chancellor admit that the deficit would not now be eliminated before 2016/7 as opposed to before the next election in 2015 as repeatedly promised.  He also predicted that growth for this year would be just 0.9%; significantly less than the 1.7% earlier predicted.

Unemployment is set to rise even further at least into the first quarter of 2012, with the public sector almost certainly the hardest hit.

Most damning of all, the coalition looks set to borrow a whopping £111bn more over the next five years than originally thought - what a stunning turn-around from a government who have made enormous political capital out of slating the previous Labour administration over how much money they borrowed from the public purse and repeatedly accusing them of leaving the country bankrupt.

What a contrast this year's Autumn statement has been with what the Chancellor declared in his first Budget last year. 'Today's the day that we pulled this country back from the brink!", I clearly remember him telling the House of Commons.

Now George Osborne has been well and truly forced to eat those words and admit that Britain's journey back to economic health will be a long and arduous one.