As Fraser points out, David Cameron has gone from saying the deficit has been brought down by a third to claiming it has been halved, but with the often unspoken caveat that this is as a share of GDP. After the Prime Minister dropped this claim into his speech today without that very important small print, journalists grilled his official spokesman on whether Cameron was misleading voters at the afternoon lobby briefing. I’ve written up the transcript of our attempts to ask the same question many different ways.
Journalist: When the Prime Minister said in his speech this afternoon the government had halved the deficit, did he qualify that in any way?
Spokesman: How do you mean?
Journalist: In the sense that the deficit in cash terms has not halved, not even nearly halved, it’s thirded.
Spokesman:I think it’s fallen half as a percentage of GDP, hasn’t it?
Journalist: Yes, but he didn’t say halved as a percentage of GDP.
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