During his ten-year stint as chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown used his budgets to make extravagant boasts about how brilliantly the economy was performing with him in charge. A sustained period of stable growth was supposedly the longest not just since quarterly gdp figures began in 1955 but for more than two centuries. Mr Brown was imprudent as well as immodest. In a string of over-optimistic budgetary forecasts, he brushed aside worries about a deteriorating fiscal position as public spending surged at his behest. Alistair Darling, who took over at the Treasury when Mr Brown became prime minister in June 2007, must feel like a street-cleaner employed to clear up after the cavalry has gone by.
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