Labour pains

No one, of course, needs to be reminded of this country’s lack of economic growth. However, while it is embarrassing for David Cameron that other countries are outpacing Britain, the International Monetary Fund projections on which Labour and the TUC have based their arguments are just that, projections.

The fact that so few predicted the present financial crisis accurately, along with the uncertainties surrounding the future of the eurozone – from which Britain is at least partially insulated – suggests that the events of the next few years cannot be forecast with any great confidence, as Labour must surely know.

In other words, this is another forlorn attempt by the Opposition to seize an economic agenda which, if the Government was really failing as badly as they claim, Labour should by now be setting.

Not only unwilling to accept responsibility for its own part in running up the huge public sector deficit with which the Government is now grappling but also unable to explain how their own spending plans would differ from the coalition’s, Labour has failed to develop any coherent economic policy of its own, while its union partners persist in trying to drag it even further towards the Left.

If the party is in the business of long-term projections, it might consider its own direction over the next few years and ponder which has the biggest chance of recovery, the Labour Party or the British economy.