Live Blog Darling’s speech

3:30pm: The House is in confrontational mood and Darling is off on a party political point scoring exercise straight away. First mention of aspiration, the new political buzz word.

3:35 Darling has just, as expected, downgraded his growth forecast for 2008 to 2 to 2.5%. Darling has adopted the Brown strategy of death by figures and throwing international comparisons around like confetti—a sure sign that  there is something to hide.

3:40pm Here’s Fraser’s early take:

1)      Language. It’s pure Brown! Right up from the preamble to weird sentenced like “Britain: the fastest growing major economy in the world”. You’d think the speechwriters would attempt a slight stylistic change. The result is simply hilarious. With Brown sitting beside him it looks like a Keith Harris-Orville type scenario.
2)      Growth. Of course, Britain is not the fastest-growing. There are 31 developed countries tracked by the OECD. Of these, 18 – ie most – have grown faster than Britain.