These Are Not the Deficit or GDP Numbers That George Osborne Was Looking For...

Nick Clegg should end this farce, let the Wookie win, and allow a party with Balls take over the government. He has no future as a politician. Why doesn't he try being a patriot?

Ryan Avent:

Britain's budget: Not the result they'd hoped for: GEORGE OSBORNE, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, is out with the government's new budget. The Spectator, which live-blogged the proceedings, posted this interesting chart. Not exactly what the government had in mind when it rolled out its austerity plans, I'm sure. And the sort of thing that should make it difficult for the chancellor to continue arguing that it is confidence in the government's commitment to fiscal prudence that is responsible for Britain's low interest rates. Stephanie Flanders does the explaining:

Whitehall departments have stuck to the chancellor's budget plans since then. In fact, they have spent rather less than he first asked them to. That is why he has again felt able to take a few billion more pounds out of their budgets for the next two years, to increase infrastructure spending and perhaps deliver other minor goodies later today. No, it's not Whitehall, but the UK economy that's wildly departed from the chancellor's original script.Britain's national output has risen by just over 1% since the election, instead of the 7% George Osborne was hoping for in his first Budget.