What could go wrong with Osborne’s vision? It used to be argued that the Government would find it impossible to enact cuts as large as the ones required in the last Parliament. Yet it managed them. I suspect that the smaller cuts envisaged for this Parliament are readily achievable.

 

As always, the big risks are economic. A major world downturn could scupper the Chancellor’s plans. That said, I am relatively optimistic. The Chinese slowdown has been overblown. China now seems to be stabilising. The US recovery, despite weak figures on Tuesday, seems pretty robust. Of course the eurozone is a basket case. But as basket cases go, it is doing reasonably well and it should register growth of about 1.5pc this year.

David Fuller's view

I share the mild optimism expressed in the last paragraph above.