Bleak Week Ends With Weak Growth

Borrowing Brown's prayers for an economic election growth miracle were dealt a bitter blow today with weak GDP figures showing a busted economy struggling to beat recession depression blues. The financial storm of a Greek tragedy is waiting in the wings on the back of today's dire debt warning from basket-case Greece.

The last roll of the election dice was bad news for spinners hoping for some crumb of comfort from today's ONS figures after a week of dismal news on the economic front.

Soaring unemployment rising to record 2.5m highs. Inflation rate rises hitting 3.4% and hitting the pocket. The dire economy "to stay in the doldrums". A country down at the heels and down in the dumps.

Now the bogeyman of GDP growth for the first quarter of 2010 struggled to reach an anaemic 0.2 percent. A bitter blow for a bleak Brown world in the final fortnight of the election race.

But the UK economy continued to "recover" from recession in the first three months of the year, according to some in La-La Land. Er, GDP grew by a piddling 0.2% between January and March, according to ONS figures out today. Weaker than the 0.4% growth predicted by some economic gurus. The figures may be revised - but not until after election day.

Roughly translated that means voters can kiss goodbye to any good times and kiss goodbye to hopes on the jobs front - with public sector cutbacks on the cards from whichever party struggles to hold the reigns of power.

Voters have a right to hear something from the illustrious leaders and wannabe chancellors about how they would tackle unemployment, price rises, the debt burden and the economic mess.

Instead honest reality checks are playing second fiddle to political positioning for post-election power as the parties trade blows with set-piece arguments.

Joker in the pack, Clegg, cannot now rely even on Saint Vince with his slipped halo to save the day. Honest Osborne is busy pulling election strings and Dreadful Darling has already packed his bags with a one way ticket out of the Treasury.

A weary and increasingly nervous public and twitchy money markets will have to wait a fortnight for an economic miracle or the chaos of a badly hung parliament.

The Orange Party has noted before with disbelief how projected fantasy 'growth' fixes the economic policies of the party of failure as an excuse for ducking out of cutting the deficit and dealing with a mountain of debt.

Brown spin with fantasy growth is a deceitful dodge. Without that mysterious 'growth' spin, the Brown sauce economy grinds to a halt.

Any bounce from last night's sham 'leaders' debate has brought the struggling Supreme Leader back down to earth with a miserable end to the week and more miserable news on the economic front.

Today bust basket-case Greece had to plead with a begging bowl for an EU/IMF debt bail-out to help pull the economy out of its mess. Credit rating agency Moody's cut its rating on Greek debt, hard on the heels of figures which showed a budget deficit of 13.6% of GDP.

Is the UK heading for a Greek tragedy? The wretched economy isn't so different but voters will have to wait another fortnight before harsh reality kicks in.