Today’s letter from the Office of Budget Responsibility pointing out to David Cameron that the OBR’s growth forecasts have taken into account the effect of austerity on growth is embarrassing for the Prime Minister. This kind of letter is a gift to the opposition and Ed Balls has set about taking full advantage.
Now, it is worth noting that Cameron’s comments in this case were more defensible than his ones about the national debt in the Conservative party political broadcast, which Fraser picked up on at the time. As government spin doctors have been vigorously arguing, Cameron was mainly talking about why growth has undershot the 2010 forecast which factored in the government’s deficit reduction programme.
I also suspect, that as Raf Behr has said, this letter is partly about the OBR demonstrating it really is independent from government. Ticking off the Prime Minister isn’t a bad way of doing that.
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