………so……I wonder….to clear the decks completely of anything which might compromise the Labour strategy ( We’ll spend this year & next year -after that we dont’ know-could be OK though)..they need to zap the PBR…which means the Budget has to go…..so a GE before a Budget ???

Economic optimism is inextricably linked to economic confidence. If people are confident that the economic position will improve, they will be more optimisitic about the out-turn. If they are more optimistic about the future, they will gain in confidence about the present, which in turn feeds their view of the future.

The self-reinforcing relationship between optimism and confidence also works the other way round. If people lack confidence, they will become pessimistic. If they are pessimistic, their confidence level falls. etc.etc.

The relevance in terms of polls and voting intentions is that if Government action / inaction undermines confidence, this will inevitably feed through into economic optimism. Playing fast and loose with what information about future spending plans and their consequences for the public finances is made available and when is not action calculated to inspire confidence.

Attacking one’s opponents on the basis of an issue sublty different from the original question is also a classic obfuscation technique by those who have something to hide.

Begs the question as to who is being rattled, and why ?

Clearly, the Tories have an interest in playing down any kind of optimism on the basis that it might just lead to such an improvement.

Telling fibs re the abolition of all figures apart from Brown and Darling’s just shows how rattled the opposition is becoming.

Looks like those are the only figures we will get now.

Not true, and nor is your denial.

There will be plenty of official, independent figures. It’s the comprehensive spending review that’s been put off, not the announcements of results or policy announcements.

“taking n £bn from here & putting x£bn there-Balls did this on Marr & Mandelson did it on R4 this morning.”

and Gordon Brown just did it in the HofC. Nothing wrong with that. Changing priorities, identifying savings. Making commitments, and exposing the Conservatives’ position for what it is – “do nothing to help”.