Prime Minister David Cameron was reprimanded by a budget watchdog for claiming that it did not see his austerity agenda as a drag on Britain's economy. In a speech on Thursday, Cameron said his deficit-cutting agenda was not responsible for the country's depressed growth rate which was instead caused by the financial crisis, the Euro zone's problems and higher oil prices - a view he said was endorsed by the independent watchdog.
All three British major political parties are failing to come clean on spending cuts that will need to be at least as deep as the 1970s, a leading think tank warned Tuesday. Repairing the public finances will be the 'defining domestic policy task of the next government', the Institute for Fiscal Studies said at a special election briefing.