Ok so what would the Tories do better

All the talk of economic problems,but what has gone largely unreported is the performance of George Osbourne who did the rounds yesterday in an attempt to portray the Tories as the alternative economic party.

His main thread was that the so called Brown prudence was far from that in allowing asset inflation to rampage out of control and borrowing figures to be manipulated

He kicked off with a speech at the policy exchange in which he said that

root of the problem is not political strategy but economic strategy. Governments should be there to help people when they need it. They should set aside money in the good years so it can make life easier for families in the difficult years. So we shouldn't be seeing taxes rise in a downturn. The lowest paid shouldn't be targeted by the Exchequer when they already struggling with a rising cost of living.

He outlined some aspects of Tory policy to counter the current economic problems.In particular that the fiscal measures that a government uses should be independently verified.adding

Never again should the Government be able to borrow recklessly in a boom, and still claim it is guided by prudence.

Noticeably though one again no promise of tax cuts and an inherent warning that it may take two terms to balance the books

Iain Martin is only partly convinced

The brutal demolition of Brownomics, the analysis of the debt bubble and critique of Labour’s inadequate public sector reform was comprehensive and well structured

he says but...

Beyond that it became a little hazy

and he comments that

The Tory defence of the 10p tax band is hypocritical, opportunistic and will do them no favours. The Tories should be offering to simplify the tax system, promising to lift the working poor out of tax by dramatically moving allowances upwards

.

Perhaps Osbourne should also read the Sun's leader comment this morning which says that we all accept that the economy is going wrong

But if the polls are accurate and the Tories are heading for power, we want to hear precisely what they intend to do about it.

Later he appeared on Channel 4 news where he got a battering from John Snow,Fraser Nelson writes that

Jon Snow put to him that “the IMF says that our growth is going to be 1.6%, not only this year but next year as well, and that outstrips any other country in the whole of Europe and the United States.” Utter nonsense, of course, but Osborne did not correct him when asked to name a country that would do better. Again Snow said to Osborne that “on the IMF figures, Britain comes out on top” and later “you reject the absolutely key finding which growth which is – you swear by growth – UK growth is 1.6% which is better than anyone else in the developed world”.