Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Worst recovery in history: triple dip looms after shock -0.3% growth. But why?

 

Friday 25 January 2013 13:42 GMT
Comments
Britain will use its year-long presidency of the G8 group of rich nations to push for global action against tax evasion and “aggressive” tax avoidance by wealthy individuals and businesses, Prime Minister David Cameron said today
Britain will use its year-long presidency of the G8 group of rich nations to push for global action against tax evasion and “aggressive” tax avoidance by wealthy individuals and businesses, Prime Minister David Cameron said today (AP)

There have been few more compelling and strong writers on Britain's debt than Fraser Nelson, the Editor of The Spectator. He won huge plaudits in Westminster for his work on "Brownies", from "Brown-lies" - what he claimed to be the lies of the former Prime Minister. In the past few weeks, he has turned his ire towards David Cameron and George Osborne.

This strikes many of us as particularly impressive because Cameron worked so hard to woo him. In a blog post today, typically packed full of graphs, Fraser both reacts to this morning's figures and reflects on some of its puzzles: "But the puzzle in Osborne’s recovery is the jobs. There are now more people employed in Britain than at any point in our history... Why? One answer is immigration: foreign-born workers account for 60 per cent of the rise in working-age employment under Osborne. Data earlier this week suggested that people are also having to accept lower salaries, and more part-time or temporary work. So the quality of jobs is going down, but the number is going up."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in