the system we are back where we started....nowhere, flat lining and back in recession.  The Tories cannot take credit for the Olympic boost to the economy, this was down to Labour in winning the Olympics in the first instance.  The Tory financial recovery for UK is still an utter mess! Winston_from_the_Ministry I don't see how anybody can claim Ed Balls strategy has failed. He hasn't been running anything. DanMcCurry The big question is whether people have formed a settled view on the economy. If growth picks up will they forget everything previously or will they continue to view the Tories as incompetent? Jeremy_Preece I have said it before and I will say it again. Labour in opposition allowed the Tories to get away with blaming Labour for the whole of the world-wide banking crisis. In so doing it also allowed a myth that somehow the Tories are better at economics and had only they been in power in 2008 then things would have been better. Of course this is lie, but by not facing it down, we have allowed the Tories to win a propaganda victory. It is the perceptions of voting public that determine who will win the next election. Facts come a poor second to that, and with the power of the media - reality comes a poor third. It is bad news if we in Labour are to be stuck in the posistion of wanting bad economic news, to prevent the Tories getting in properly at the