Growing gloom
SOME experts were surprised by yesterday’s news that the economy is shrinking, describing it as “unexpected”.
Really? They should get out more.
Certainly, it was no shock to families struggling to get by.
Or to pub and restaurant owners looking despairingly at empty tables and small shopkeepers wondering when the Christmas rush will start.
Months of needless Budget uncertainty made it almost inevitable that GDP would flatline or fall over the last three months.
Rather than act to kickstart the economy, Rachel Reeves and her team of enthusiastic leakers in the Treasury spent much of the last quarter actually helping to plunge it in the deep freeze.
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Next week the Bank of England may cut interest rates, which would offer some respite from the gloom.
But there is now a very real threat of Britain slumping into recession.
The fact is, GDP has fallen in nine of the 16 months of data released since Labour took power.
Having been handed a solid economic start — the fastest growth in the G7, a healthy jobs market and falling inflation — Labour have blown it.
Clarkson’s harm
WHO would want to make an enemy of the vastly popular Jeremy Clarkson?
Yet Rachel Reeves has managed it twice, first over farm taxes and now pubs.
The Chancellor should be worried that our columnist Jezza has joined other landlords in barring all Labour MPs from his premises.
She should now realise that her abandonment of the trade could have very real consequences for Labour.
Even her own Business Minister admits that the Chancellor has pushed thousands of boozers to the brink.
Kate Dearden says she wants to understand the “pressures” felt by the hospitality trade.
It’s not complicated.
While publicly promising support, Reeves has slammed them with massive business rate increases.
Labour should urgently rethink this senseless attack — or face the consequences.
Zero sense
FINALLY, the EU has woken up to the madness of banning diesel and petrol cars.
Germany and Italy have seemingly won their battle to scrap an outright ban by 2035, as demand for electric BMWs and Fiats has plummeted.
Ed Miliband should agree to follow suit to protect British car manufacturers and hundreds of thousands of jobs.
But His Greenness is instead doubling down on his own 2030 target.
Because nothing must get in the way of his eco mission — not even the threat of dismantling one of our last great industries
