ABOUT THAT HEADLINE YOU MIGHT HAVE READ IN THE FT….DEFICIT UPDATE:

THE FT’S SPIN ON THE NEW DEFICIT NUMBERS IS CURIOUS TO SAY THE LEAST

The Pink ‘un needs to do its sums a bit more carefully: who cares if Darling has undershot his budget? Since when did the Chancellor do anything except pick targets out of the air?

The growth in both debt and borrowing has INCREASED year-on-year and IS ACCELERATING year-on-year.

This is all the credit agencies will want to know. In fact you have to get some way down their lead piece to find this little gem:

‘The better news on borrowing will not mask the fact that Britain’s deficit is still at a record for peace-time and is on an unsustainable path, as the European Commission and Charlie Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England, have said this week.

So if the Financial Times thinks this gives Darling ‘extra sweetener’ money with which to fiddle and bribe, maybe it’s time their readers switched to The Slog….the FT makes you pay to see the wrong ONS interpretation; here it’s accurate and free.

Hurrah!