Definitely more. Fair play to Gideon as he does have a History degree. Oh, and an O Level in maths.
The track record so far reads like........... (lifted obviously)
In 2010 George Osborne made a number of bold predictions about how his ideological austerity experiment would benefit the UK economy. The mainstream press has long-since forgotten about these fabulously over-optimistic predictions, but they are still available from the Office for Budget Responsibility (
here) should anyone want to look at them and compare them with what has actually happened (
here).
Eliminating the deficit: In 2010 Osborne promised that his austerity experiment would completely eliminate the budget deficit by 2015. In reality the UK is still borrowing £100 billion per year, meaning that
he's failed to even halve the deficit.
Government debt: In 2010 Osborne predicted that the UK national debt would have reached £1.232 trillion by 2015. In reality it has risen to £1.489 trillion, which means
he has borrowed £257 billion more than he said he would.
The size of the economy: In 2010 Osborne predicted that the UK economy would grow to £1.916 trillion by 2015, but in reality it is only £1.822 trillion, meaning that
he's borrowed more than a quarter of a trillion more than he said he was going to, in order to make the UK economy almost £100 billion smaller than he said it was going to be.
Debt/GDP: In 2010 Osborne predicted that debt would peak at 67.2% of GDP in 2015 and then start falling. In reality the debt has reached 80.4% of GDP and it's still growing dramatically.
This means that he's now overseen the longest sustained increase in the national debt since the Second World War!
The UK Credit Rating: Before he became Chancellor George Osborne staked his reputation on maintaining the UK's AAA Credit Ratings, but
in 2013 the UK economy was downgraded for the first time since the 1970s.
Worse than Labour: George Osborne continually harps on about how Labour would threaten his "economic recovery" but what he doesn't tell you is that
in just four years he's created more new debt than every single Labour government in history combined!
Earnings: One of the strongest indicators that Osborne's ideological austerity experiment is really bad for Britain is the fact that he has overseen
the longest sustained decline in wages since records began.The fact that
millions of workers are significantly worse off than they were in 2008 thanks to George Osborne's deliberate campaign of
wage repressionexplains why economic demand is still so weak and the "recovery" so slow.
As a result of Osborne's policies, ordinary workers have suffered the worst declines in income since records began.
