Whitehall Spin Doctors Hang Gieve Out To Dry
The influential Evening Standard, the newspaper which seems to be very much in touch with the inner workings of the government, has launched a scathing attack on the treatment of now ex-deputy governor of the Bank of England, Sir John Gieves. It seems as though Sir John, who was hired by Gordon Brown, was the victim of a vicious political poly to bury the bad news contained in Alistair Darling’s Mansion House speech last night.
While the financial press are covering the departure of Sir John in detail and the potential for further major changes at the Bank of England, the Chancellor seems to have gotten away his downbeat statement yesterday evening. It seems as though economic growth in the UK will be slower than the Treasury had anticipated. This slowing of the economy will result in a larger budget deficit and more lending by the government to balance the books.
Normally in these situations a government would look to cut back on services and increases taxes, but these are areas of government on which Labour has already taken a very forceful approach – to change strategy now would leave the government wide open to yet more taunts of a u-turn.
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