It’s safe to come out now

GORDON BROWN insists it’s all over. Interviewed in The Telegraph today, he predicts that there will be strong growth over the next 12 months.

“I think people have moved closer to our view that Britain is capable of coming back to growth at a higher rate next year than people were originally assuming, and higher rates in the future. “We’ve said that the economy will grow by one and half per cent next year and more people are moving towards our position as a result of what they’ve seen in the economy over the last few months.”

It is, apparently, “simply not true” that tough years are ahead of us. “The choice is between people like me who are optimists for the future of this country and those who think the prospects of this generation are worse than the last.”

Maybe he’ll be proved right. But the Treasury’s own forecast is for 1.25% annual growth, while the CBI and IMF reckon it’ll only be 0.9%.

Not that their recent economic forecasts are anything to boast about.