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Roland White

Where am I?

General elections are about mood, momentum and deep underlying sentiments such as “time for change”. But they are also about statistics and the statistical backdrop to the forthcoming election is getting interesting. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week said that Britain had scraped out of recession in the final quarter of last year. The margin, 0.1%, was the smallest possible and on an equivalent basis was less than a tenth of the rate America achieved over the same period. It should be unequivocally bad news for the government. Not only is Britain last out of recession among leading economies, directly contradicting...