The British Prime Minister David Cameron announced yesterday that the government’s attempts to cut debt were “proving harder than anyone envisaged.”
Who does he mean when he says “anyone”? The last government? The much-reviled ex-Prime Minister, Gordon Brown? Many leading economists? More than a few newspaper columnists? The American President?
No, when Mr Cameron says that the government’s attempts to cut debt were “proving harder than anyone envisaged” he means harder than he or the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne and their advisers envisaged. Famously, Mr Osborne said that there was no need for a Plan B, they knew what they were doing and their policy would work. Next week, if Mr Cameron’s preparatory speech is read correctly, the British government is going to have to announce, in obfuscating words no doubt, that its policies are not working.
On the bright side, they might begin to do what other people envisaged a long time ago. Plan B anyone?