"Is this recovery which I see before me,
The handle towards my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A recovery of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going,
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' th' other senses,
Or else worth all the rest."
And the reason is:
"There is in fact good reason for this. The budget is forecast in detail for two years and then from year three on moves onto a generic forecasting model that uses long term underlying growth assumptions. So the first two years are always problematic but because of the realistic assumptions used. Thereafter though the long term underlying growth trend in the UK is used and not the pattern of behaviour we now know to exist. That always means that from year three on the budget always says things will get better and so, five years out, we’re always in balance, according to Osborne."
With acknowledgements to Macbeth and Richard Murphy.
