Yesterday Gordon took credit in his speech for an impressive 50 quarters of consecutive growth. “Today I can report economic growth for the 50th consecutive quarter. The budget forecast is continued growth in quarters 51, 52, 53 and 54.”

An excellent record going back 12 1/2 years to the autumn of 1992. Guido remembers September 1992 well, the economy was unshackled from the sado-monetarism of shadowing the Bundesbank and White Wednesday began our long unbroken boom…

Lamont sang Non Je Ne Regrette Rien in the bath after he exited us from the ERM madness, but Gordon Brown described the ERM as applying ‘socialist planning’ to the economy rather than ‘relying on market forces’. He told the parliamentary Labour party ‘We can fight the speculators if we join the ERM’. Gordon was a fan of the ERM and the Labour party was enthusiastic for Britain to remain shackled to it.

So the foundations of Gordon’s 50 consecutive quarters of growth actually include 5 years of Tory economic stewardship with a policy opposed by Brown. The bit of Gordon’s budget speech that got edited out is here.