| FactCheck: GDP shock – was it the weather wot done it? |
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"They are clearly disappointing figures but the statisticians tell us that the weather had a huge effect – we had the coldest December for 100 years, businesses were closed, people couldn't get to work... So we're not going to be blown off course by the bad weather." George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 25 January 2011 Not any more it ain't. We now know the economy shrank by 0.5 per cent at the end of last year – hardly the recovery the prime minister cheerily predicted in December.Ed Balls pounced on the figures as evidence that Britain's emergence from recession has come to a juddering halt. He urged theTories to come up with a plan B, and fast. |
