It didn’t take long for Will “we don’t do attack dog” Straw of Left Foot Forward to, errm, go on the attack.  The editor of the well funded “evidence based” blog dismissed Guido’s story (“Economics for 7 Year Olds“) about the UK being the only G20 country left in recession by quoting the figures from the back pages of an out of date copy of the Economist.

He even made a little dunce’s hat and wittily headlined his piece “Economics for Gui-d’oh  Fawkes”.

Will might have checked a back-copy of the Economist, but it seems he missed the news yesterday that Canada grew 0.1% in Q3, Mexico grew 2.93% in Q3, South Africa grew 0.9% annualised in Q3, and so did Russia. The story was driven by the new data released.  Guido isn’t sure what Will is smoking, but the icing on the cake was the citing of Spain as an example of a G20 country still in recession.  Spain isn’t even in the G20 Will.

Will’s blog is usually pretty good, provocative and produces original content, he really should stick to evidence based positive stuff, the last mysteriously funded high profile left-wing blogger who tried to take Guido on head-to-head made a huge fool of himself.  Will should also know (from his years of spinning for HM Treasury) that you need evidence that is up-to-date. Guido’s story was based on news, not old data or wishful thinking…