IMF: Don’t cut now  

Only a few weeks ago, the Tories slapstick man of the hour, George Osborne (you don’t see much of him these days),  repeatedly invoked the spectre of the IMF and its importance in determining whether or not Britain should slash public spending now. George clearly  thought that this was the assessment which the IMF would make and that he would be vindicated; held aloft as an economic sage and not just someone worthy of comparison with Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. That’s harsh, though. Maybe Harold and Buster understood economics… So when the IMF came out this week  and said without ambiguity that cutting public spending in our country  now would damage the UK economic recovery, you could have knocked George over with a squirt of water from a preposterously large plastic daisy, or perhaps a bucket of water perched above a partially open door… Nil desperandum. George...