Tragic Misconceptions

Given that students and academics have misunderstood the purpose of raising tuition fees (everybody pays less!), and medical professionals have misunderstood the purpose of Twizzler Lansley's anti-NHS bill (modernisation not privatisation!), and legal professionals have misunderstood the purpose of cutting legal aid (it'll help the little folk!), it is perhaps understandable that the Governor of the Bank of England should misunderstand the state of the economy. Like many economic illiterates, Mervyn King gave voice to the conspiracy theory which claims that people spend less if you take their money away, and that this tends to have a slightly depressive effect on the economy as a whole. The economy has, according to some, been stagnant for six or eight months; and is, according to others, "struggling to recover in the face of restrictions on bank lending, severe public spending cuts and low consumer confidence". On the positive side, there's been a royal wedding and we've started another war.

The Treasury has thus far refrained from comment, since the corpse of the business secretary was too busy wagging the bare, blackened bones of its finger at tomorrow's strikers, and the Chancellor was too busy using Danny Alexander more or less in accordance with the more embarrassing terms of the coalition agreement.