The Tories’ tax plans are absurd. When will Labour be brave enough to say so? | William Keegan

Pre-election giveaways funded by yet more austerity will push the welfare state the opposition created towards ruin

As a longstanding observer of the British economy, I sympathise with the general reader trying to make sense of recent reports on what is happening to it.

One week he or she is told that inflation is falling; another week that it isn't. One week we are reliably informed that interest rates are going to be reduced; the next that they are not. One week there is no danger of falling into recession. The next week we are informed that we are already in one.