Does the Government think we’re all doomed?

There’s a doom-laden air around Westminster today, neatly captured by Fraser’s post earlier.  Will the fresh injection of £billions of taxpayers’ cash do anything to help?  Few have any hope, let alone certainty, that it will – and that includes the Government.  Gone is the “we’ve saved the banking system” bravado of a few weeks ago, to be replaced today by statements on rising unemployment and – as the Standard’s Paul Waugh blogged earlier – warnings that “global economic downturn [has been] intensifying in the past two months”.  Sadly, green shoots are there none.

Perhaps Brown & Co. are starting to wake up to the lose-lose situation they’re in during the run-up to March’s Budget.  Either they tell the truth about how bad things are – in which case, we get a horrowshow Budget; full of downgraded tax receipts, dreary growth forecasts, and borrowing figures so high that – as today – an increase in national debt by £50 billion warrants little