Some of Britain's leading economists are warning the chancellor,George Osborne, that the economy is too fragile to withstand his drastic spending cuts and that he must draw up a plan B.
Experts, including two former Whitehall advisers and two signatories of last year's high-profile letter backing the Tories' cuts, have told the Observer that they have profound concerns about the direction of Treasury policy.
Since the chancellor laid out his plans to balance the books by the end of the parliament in his "emergency budget" a year ago, the outlook has deteriorated markedly. Growth has gone flat over the past six months and a slew of dismal data has raised fears that the UK could be sliding towards a double-dip recession, as the US recovery wanes and the Greek debt crisis rattles the eurozone.
Jonathan Portes, the director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, who until February was chief economist at the Cabinet Office, advising the prime minister, said: "You do not gain credibility by sticking to a strategy that isn't working."
He said that the recent slowdown in growth was partly the result of factors outside the government's control, but insisted: "It isn't just about the international environment, it's because of the strategy the government has followed." » | Heather Stewart and Daniel Boffey | The Guardian | Saturday, June 04, 2011
