Well done Gideon

[newwave]

RPI inflation at 5.5!

Nice to see the economy is safe in your hands.

No doubt you will be asking for pay restraint and expect public sector workers to accept a two year pay freeze.

Still at least the concept of pay restraint has not reached your mates in the boardrooms and banks so thats ok then.

Remember, were all in the big society together with the better off shouldering the biggest burden, yeah right.

The inflation figures are very bad but I don't think you can blame the Chancellor too much. The main reason for the high rate of inflation is foreign commodity prices particulary the price of oil which continues to rise at a phenomenal rate. I really think the Government needs to address this urgently and I'm hopeful with the budget tomorrow that something will be done. I also think questions need to be asked of the Bank of England monetary policy committee, I appreciate they are trying to use monetary policy to stimulate the economy by keeping interest rates low but they are doing this at the expense of allowing inflation to soar.

Hudd, we are headed for stagflation of that I have no doubt.

AND IT'S ALL GIDEONS FAULT AFTER ALL HE IS RUNNING THE ECONOMY

Or does that only apply to Gordon :)

PS, thanks for the 4 points

Osborne is partly responsible (thanks to the VAT rise) but the bulk of our inflation is due to the hangover of quantitative easing (remember that), far too low interest rates, the (deliberate) weakening of the pound, together with the obvious spikes in commodity prices.

All of those except the last can be addressed - though Mervyn King probably deserves quite a lot of blame. If he had listened to Andrew Sentance we would have interest rates of about 1% by now, and CPI down to around 3%, probably.

I agree that inflation is a real worry although I think we should avoid stagflation as Q1 GDP figures should be fairly positive IMO. I think the OBR growth forecast will be reduced in the budget tomorrow though. I wouldn't blame Osbourne for it totally although I think there are things he could have done about it. He inherited an economy which already had inflation above what it should be and oil prices have undoubtedly risen since the coalition came into office although the VAT rise has certainly contributed to the inflation we have within the economy. I don't blame Osbourne or Brown for that matter for the oil price which is the main driver of inflation IMO although the amount of tax on fuel isn't helpful. One point that is often missed in the BoE policy of setting interest rates has broad consensus of support but they have continually shown they are unable/unwilling to control inflation yet BoE independence is hailed as a great success, why would it be any worse if the chancellor were setting interest rates.

That game was the most frustrating match I've ever watched in my life and I'm more and more convinced that Defoe has been kidnapped by aliens and replaced.

Haven't you been listening to the deficit and debt figures....

I think it's Gordon you should be thinking.

Brilliant budget news about lowering corporation tax and exemptions for small businesses.

oops thanking

quantitative easing shudders heading for a long hangover