Does it smell like coffee, Mr Osbourne?

Today, it is really time that this chancellor and this government recognise that their economic strategy has failed, the economy is smaller today than when they came to office in 2010 with their grubby little coalition agreement.

It was predicted this week that the British economy would return to growth, yet the economy has shrunk by a eye watering 0.7%.

George Osborne's ill-judged plan has turned Britain's recovery under the previous labour government into a flatlining economy and now a deep and deepening recession. UK output is 4.5% lower than it was when the economy peaked in early 2008.

Conservative Britain is the worst performing country in the G8 group of industrialised countries, apart from Italy.

The Labour Party warned that Austerity alone would not repair the economy, it is clear George Osbourne, the part time chancellor, has utterly destroyed confidence of consumers and investors a like.

If you destroy confidence, you raise tax and you cut public spending and reduce public investment, then you cannot be surprised if the economy crashes.

To quote the Deputy Prime Minister before the 2010 General Election the Lib Dem's agreed with LABOUR that severe cuts to our vital public services would damage economic growth, in Nick Clegg’s own words to Reuters "My eight-year-old (son) ought to be able to work this out -- you shouldn't start slamming on the brakes when the economy is barely growing. "If you do that you create more joblessness, you create heavier costs on the state, the deficit goes up even further and the pain with dealing with it is even greater. So it is completely irrational."

But of course, as sir Alan Budd said after the 2010 General election the economy would grow more strongly than Mr Darling gloomily forecast. Something is going badly right.

Unemployment, he said, will be almost 200,000 lower than had been feared. Economic growth will not be quite as strong but the tax revenues – which are far more important – will come in much higher than forecast 

The so-called structural deficit (the amount of overspend that will not be eliminated by an economic recovery) is a little bigger than had been estimated. But crucially, Mr Osborne's election goal – to abolish "the bulk" of the structural deficit by 2014 – would have been easily achieved had Mr Darling remained in place. No more taxes need to be raised, or budgets cut, to honour this Tory manifesto pledge."

British house prices, which have recovered faster than anywhere in the world and should grow by 10 per cent both this year and next."The British economy is doing remarkably well. Manufacturing is bouncing back.

So he concludes that as he doesn't need to make savage cuts to sort out the deficit.

Compare and contrast, under Labour a recovery, under the Conservatives double dip recession, with the Lib Dem's verbally agreeing with labour and the same time voting with the conservatives.
 
The lib Dem's have betrayed voters on the economy, on tax on education and Tuition fees and EMA on the NHS, on the ballot paper next time around read the betrayal party.