Unjustified smugness

The Chancellor may have claimed that Britain was better prepared than any other nation to deal with a cooling world economy, but looking behind the headline-grabbing initiatives on ‘sin taxes’ it is clear that his figures do not justify such smugness. Britain now faces a 2.9 per cent budget deficit while even Germany is recording a budget surplus. What planet is Mr Darling on?

Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich is Chief Economist at Policy Exchange