George Osborne treated parliament to his autumn statement this week and served up some surprising news: Britain's deficit is not rising (not what most economists predicted). The statement required a bit of fancy footwork on the accounting (including banking early the proceeds from next year's auction on 4G telecoms licences) but it was enough to throw Ed Balls, who initially fumbled his response.
The more serious news concerned Osborne's admission that in order to stay close to his debt reduction target, austerity would need to be prolonged for yet another year. The 'structural' deficit is now not due to be wiped out until 2018 - well into the next parliament.
In the studio to discuss this: the Observer's economics editor Heather Stewart, political columnist Martin Kettle and economics writer Aditya Chakrabortty.
Other measures included a cap on working age benefits of 1% for three years, a scrapping of the planned fuel duty rise, a cut in corporation tax and some small tinkering with tax bands. The package has been described variously as "white van man Conservatism" and good old populist Thatcherism.
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