Though Cowards Flinch

Ah , now here’s a surprise.

Credit Rating Agency Fitch’s has just published a ‘special report’ on how the coalition government needs to cut spending really, really quickly now, just a few days before the ‘emergency budget’ at which the coalition is planning to do just that.  

The AAA rating is under threat, otherwise, warn Fitch’s, who are of course very well known for their reliable ratings which really, really reflect reality and are not at all open to manipulation and rampant corruption.

Ah yes, Fitch’s, I remember now. 

That’s the credit rating agency at which Chris Huhne, the Tories’ new cabinet playmate, was vice chair of sovereign and international finance just a few years ago, although this little detail from his life is mysteriously missing from his website biography. 

That’ll be the same Chris Huhne, who in January said this to a then Tory opponent about the dangers of really, really cutting spending:

You’re being far too complacent about it.  I used to actually run part of a credit rating agency that looked at government risk, and one thing that would really worry rating agencies was if growth was stalled, and then you didn’t get the growth in tax revenues  which you normally expect in an upturn,  and you being to get benefit claims rising because unemployment was not coming down.

(Via Duncan Weldon, whom we hope to see blogging again soon.)