World Basket Case? It's Us

When Darling stands up at lunchtime to deliver his Pre-Election Budget Report, he will doubtless repeat the old formula about how they're innocent victims of global circumstance. The reality is that Labour have dropped us into a fiscal hole bigger than that of any other OECD member - including the supposed basket cases of Ireland, Iceland, and Greece.

Here are the OECD's lastest borrowing league tables for 2010 and 2011 (NB to make the chart clearer, we've reversed the sign on the financial balance - ie higher is more borrowing):

Tyler will be spending the day round at the TPA's fortified bunker close to the frontline. We'll be trying to work out what's really going on through the smoke screen, and we'll be posting our conclusions on the TPA's site.