FINANCE

Avoiding Osborne's dilemmas

What do you do when you miss your targets? Dan Corry considers a cautionary tale from George Osborne

This year's Budget was, as usual for a George Osborne production, presented highly politically. But like the one in 2012, it unravelled fast.

Most of the focus has been on the shambles of the tightening of the Personal Independence Payment – the benefit regime for the disabled, the withdrawal of that proposal and the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith. This is key politics and will reverberate for some time. But as the dust settles it also seems to be a pretty profound moment for the more important issue of economic policy and our economic prospects. George Osborne is starting to look like he has lost control of our economy, a very dangerous place to be for any chancellor of the Exchequer. The ‘Long-term Economic Plan' seems ever more a rhetorical and an election-winning device.

Dan Corry

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