Economy stuck in the slow lane

Yet, while the Chancellor tried to show some contrition, it was Nick Clegg who hit the nail on the head when he said the marginal 0.3 per cent rise in growth was “one number for one quarter” and “I don’t want anyone to think that somehow we are out of the woods yet”.

He is right. Manufacturing and construction, cornerstones of any recovery, are still in decline while the wider economy is still in a rut – output in the past three years has only increased by a marginal 1.7 per cent, as opposed to a projected 8.4 per cent.

Mr Osborne has interpreted these figures as a vindication of his austerity approach and how Britain cannot borrow its way out of trouble, the only strategy advocated by Labour’s two Eds – Balls and Miliband – who still have no understanding about the scale of a slump which can be traced back to their days in 11 Downing Street alongside Gordon Brown.

Yet, while the Chancellor had the misfortune to be inherit this mess, his approach does not inspire confidence. This Government may have created 50,000 new private sector jobs across Yorkshire, a number sufficient to fill the county’s largest football ground, but this figure needs to be trebled before the region can look to the future with optimism.

It does not end here. Too much Whitehall policy is still focused on policies and changes that are actually stagnating growth at a time when every policy change should be considered in these clear terms: how many private sector jobs will be created and will the public finances improve as a consequence?

This mindset needs to be applied to the entire Government while Yorkshire waits for the benefits of innovative policies that are intended to empower cities like Sheffield and Leeds.

Yet it will not happen when the Government and Labour prefer to trade insults and pursue short-term gesture politics rather than face up to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s assertion, backed up by these GDP figures, that austerity is here to stay for a generation unless a more enlightened strategy emerges from the doom.