Commies, that old chestnut.

Pam Morgan, the Government seems to do a excellent job of running the country into the ground, and when out of government, talking the country down.

People like Pam need to explain, why there was 1,000,000 people on the NHS waiting lists in 1997.

Indu p.....Diddums, Diddums, it appears like your other Tory friends Luddite, and Awake, you get very defensive and abusive if anyone questions your Dear leader Flashman along with your hero Gideon?, you really need to relax and calm down!!, you`re obviously disappointed with the gross incompetence of your idols Flashman and Gideon?, i always find your comments highly entertaining and predictable!!, even though they come across as uncaring, selfish and ignorant!, but that comes with the territory being a loyal Tory!!.

Inbrew is trying to change straw into gold.

Public finances in a better shape?

Welfare spending up by 5%, two fuel duty increases on the way, and Inbrew is cracking open the bunting.

there's so much here that's wrong.... but even using your table Mr blanchflower, the ONLY down quarter was Q42010 (we had the worst winter in 100 years- Uk was closed for december- and please, spare me the US comparison how they deal with snow, back in UK trains don't run cos iof the wrong type of rain, or was it leaves- actually it's both, we had some excess downpour one time and the trains stopped hahaha- So, the ONLY down quarte with worst winter in 100 years- the one u mark down is a forecast from, erm, the european Union, that bastion of financial knowledge and integrity. So, 1 qarter down so far despite ALL the predictions u've made- wow, u have made a lot of noise for a long time about how the coalition would have smashed growth by now, and here u are ringing the bell AGAIN as Obama is on the phone to Merkel, sarkozy and the italian president pleading with them to grow up, geithner saying they are destabilising the global economy... so what do u do as the 'ivy' league cheerleader to balls? u slam the coalition, praying q4 is a disaster and that u can vindicate the blame on the coalition, ignoring Europe our largest trading partner- wow!! your cynicism is almost equal to that of a structured credit salesman in an Inv Bnk circa 2002/2007

It's also becoming clear that you have not grasped what's actually happening globally- differentiating 08 to today shows you have not understood the kernel of this problem, you woudn't though because it concerns excess debt, something you and many other Chicago school economists have misunderstood in the last 30 years. I can't blame you for having grown up in that paradigm but confess I'm surprised that your not upgrading the knowledge in light of the clear global events and they're strict significance. I mean, if anything, as an 'economist' times like these must be delicious as well as stressful cos we're at the limit of our understanding almost everyday, so much being made up as we go along...
Disappointing that ure not pushing envelopes, or re-writing them. And u get paid!! how DOES one get on that gig???
A poor politically motivated piece.
Lastly, you also display a lack of understanding of stewardship- u don't see that the current mess means that investors are very unforgiving right now- having a plan that's delivering historic low rates and 0.5% growth last quarter is good going. Balls would have interest rates at 7.5% by now with his madness. And as for darlings plan that was 'saving' us, well, didn't he himself say labour had no credible plan??? U quote himas a defence?!!! weird. (I really dilike quoting growth as some sort of justification but u and ure ilk seem to treasure it at all cost ) agian showing lack of understanding.
Keep up the good work with the numbers though, I genuinely hadn't realised that coalition has only had 1 down quarter so far.

I am not surprised by that remark Awake.

It`s so laughable and predictable that sychophantic tory lovers like Luddite, Indu p, and Awake are living in total denial and they live in a parallel world!!, you all really are sensitive little buttercups when anyone challenges your beloved Tories!, Gideon and Flashman are perversely satisfied with what`s happening in the euro zone!, because they think it will excuse and hide their total incompetence in running the UK economy?, which is ironic considering they slagged Gordon Brown when he mentioned the global economic problems?, but that`s what the british public are now used too!, Lying, Incompetent, out of their depth Tories like Gideon and Flashman blaming all the british econimies problems on everyone else apart from themselves!!, their Hubris and Altruism will be justly rewarded by the electorate in 2015!!, meanwhile, most of the country is getting screwed and shafted by these idiots!, 18 months in and Gideons economic strategy is in tatters!, not to worry, because Gideon clearly isn`t!!, Luddite you seriously need to calm down and keep taking your medication?, try saying a sentence without using a profanity in it?, it`s not that difficult?.

In order to supply the demand for Asia there has to be products made. Consequently raw materials are needed. Australia is the richest country in the world when you ratio raw material with population: it has lots of raw materials and a small population. It is also on the doorstep of Asia.
It is not just a coincidence that that Australian dollar has risen significantly in the past couple of years. Australian houses are also the biggest in the world so people can fit lots of goods in them. Plus we have excellent Federal Financial Policy: we did not go into recession and we have had excellent growth since the early 1990s. The federal budget is set to return to surplus around 2013. The immigration policy is strict in the sense that we only allow people with required skills or family members.

Growth can happen within this region. It does not need the demand of the US and European people. In fact there will be demand for Asian products from Africa and Latin America as the people here will seek to achieve a level of material comfort found in the First World.

Eddy S
In fact there are relatively simple steps we could take to increase employment- reducing bureaucracy, reducing the madness of health and safety and simplifying tax codes wuld BOOST employment at no cost- so why aren't we doing this?

And can I just say, nothing irritates me more than the conservative hyperbole that private sector jobs are what will re-ignite the economy, and that the private sector subsidises the public sector. What utter nonsense! Economies grow when citizens become more productive- their employer is irrelevant, i.e. an NHS employed doctor earning 100,000 a year contributes as much as a self employed doctor contributing earning 100,000 a year. I spend a lot of time in Uganda, which a few years ago was heralded as the most entrepreneurial country in the world. Well take my word for it, that entrepreneurship is not taking Uganda anywhere. Surely this is common sense - 100,000 new garages and clothes shops in Liverpool might make for impressive statistics, but if they are all importing stock from China, then that simply points towards a ballooning trade deficit.

"Contrary to the coalition government's spin, the economy was recovering nicely under the last Labour government" David please stop calling yourself an economist, you are a fantasist and a appalling Labour party apologist... fuck--me have you ever run a fuckinggg business.......;.

Him.."Hi Honey...we have got to sort out our debt problem so I have gotten rid of the car, the money that we save on the repayments will put us back into the black in 5 years"

Her..." But Sugar, the car is your only means that you have of getting to work and without it we wont even have an Income"

Him "Shut up you deficit denier"

Regrettably the New Statesman is as intellectually vacuous as the Conservatives by assuming that growth is the solution in a world increasingly poisoned and quantitatively finite.

I was told one crucial thing in the (admittedly) relatively little statistics I've studied over the course of attaining a PhD in Mathematics. It is that correlation does not equal causation. You can speculate for hours about how it's been done wrong, and how it could have been handled better, but at the end of the day a very large part of it is an attempt to find the true cause of the problem. If anybody could genuinely do that, then they'd have the stock market pretty much sewn up! Apologies for not actually coming down on one side or the other, but it's complicated enough for them - let alone me.

@Charlesfrith 13.43.

Economic growth is a reflection of our ability as a sentient species to continously advance ourselves when we co-operate, becoming more productive in the process. The role of the state is to facilitate this advancement by any means possible, including directing resources towards those ventures that may prove most productive. At present, there is enough energy, water, and land to ensure that the increasing productivity we have exhibited as a species for over 10,000 years continues. What restricts growth? Policies that restrict individuals access to resources and education, as well as policies that prevent individuals co-operating and investing in each other. Growth will always be possible, no matter what some statisticians might postulate.

That is the guy we need Gordan Brown will sort out this nonsense.

Come on Luddite, your self ridiculing posts are what they are, the only emotion you are getting out of me is pity.

Your on the right track to getting banned, and all by your own hand, well done old man.

1% We all know how the political-left hates free speech and other folks points of view. How's dolly?

"Without growth, you have no confidence, no jobs, it is a simple as that"

No. Growth can be driven by different sectors of the economy. We dont need UK consumer growth to have a booming economy -- consumer consumptions consumes the fruits of wealth creation but it does not create wealth.

So measuring success solely by GDP growth is flawed.

@matt

Foxy, bunting, what?? I can see your diet now from your regugitated tripe. Stick to fish for the brain then so you will be able to understand peoples posts.

Our kids are now paying the price of the Labour project. But look at Italy which implemented Labour's Plan B (fiscal expansion through borrowing and failure to manage the economy credibly according to Alistair ).

The truth is we are heading along a difficult road to recovery which involves a substantial adjustment in people's expectations. Miliband knows it. Where is Miliband critising the coalitions deficit reduction policies or fighting against cuts to public sector pensions?.

Luddite....Mmm i think you`re getting into an agitated state again?, calm down!!, i know the drink that compliments you?, a drink that says everything about you?, yes!, you`ve guessed it, BITTER!!.

The Uk exports diesel engines to Russian, the UK exports £33 Million pounds worth of fish and seafood to China.

"If the problems were all inherited from Labour, how come they were able to grow the economy twice as fast as the coalition has?"

You repeat this point in almost every blog of yours. And yet you surely must know it is a disingenuous argument.

Darling was borrowing heavily in the months ahead of the election. Borrowing 10.8% of GDP and achieving 1-2% growth is really nothing to crow about.

The "cuts worse than Thatcher" that Darling had promised were all postponed until after the election for obvious political purposes.

That the pre-election trajectory of economic growth could have been maintained after the election is simply crazy.

Darling as a chancellor post May 2010 would have enacted much the same cuts and tax rises as Osborne and with similar effects.

Had Balls been appointed chancellor and pursued a policy of maintained high deficit spending then we would be in probably worse straits as inflation shot up to near double digits as the pound collapsed.

Without growth, you have no confidence, no jobs, it is a simple as that.

Osborne is hiding behind the eurozone crisis, he was to busy to watch tennis at Wimbldeon to attend to his duties.

Both parties are probably as bad as each other. At the end of the last Conservative government, many public services were crying out for extra investment. While PFI (effectively buy now, pay later) enabled new building projects to get off the ground quickly, it costs more in the long term and evidently there wasn't much scrutiny or negotiation over contracts, so the private sector companies effectively screwed the taxpayer. Labour also failed to see that perpetual growth is a fallacy, so shouldn't have increased spending as much as they did.

However, with the new government, local councils are facing 20% cuts over the next few years, but since the private sector is also shedding jobs (rather than hiring redundant public sector workers) tax revenue isn't rising and the deficit continues to rise. Not to mention that during Conference Season, the government managed to find millions of pounds from nowhere to fund pet projects.

I'm also wary of increasing the number of publicly funded private sector companies to run services - with budgets falling and the need for these companies to maintain (or even in the case of PLCs increase) profit margins, while at inception they made provide better VFM than publicly run services, what happens in the future the combination of decreasing budgets conflict with not only increasing demand but the need to make increasing profits? A first step is likely to be companies buying each other up, with the potential to create local monopolies (e.g. local Academy schools run by one or two nationwide educational providers) which in the long term decrease choice and local influence (since the company's HQ may be hundreds of miles away)