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George Osborne Says Britain Is 'Walking Tall', Ignoring These 5 Awkward Graphs

Britain Is 'Walking Tall'? 5 Awkward Graphs Osborne Doesn't Want You To See
Asa Bennett
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PORT TALBOT, WALES - MARCH 25: Chancellor George Osborne during a visit to Tata Steel to see how it has been affected by the budget on March 25, 2014 in Port Talbot, Wales. In the Chancellor's budget statement last week he announced support for energy intensive manufacturing, Tata's Port Talbot factory is the largest steel plant in the UK, producing five million tonnes of steel annually and employs over 4,000 people. (Photo by Matthew Horwood - WPA Pool / Getty Images)
Matthew Horwood via Getty Images

George Osborne has lavished praise on his austerity strategy for helping the UK "walk tall in the world again".

In a triumphant speech today, the Chancellor said his cuts programme was the "only plan in town" and that the country was lifted by the coalition offering the most generous tax cuts "for a generation".

Labour insisted that the chancellor was "taking away much more" than he was giving back through tax and benefits, and the bare facts tell an even more sobering picture for the UK economy.

The country's debt burden is still set to soar, as official forecasters predict that Britain will still fail to build a recovery based on exporting and trade.

Here are five simply awkward facts expressed in graph form that George Osborne conveniently forgot to mention.

5 Graphs That George Osborne Ignores When He Says Britain Is Walking Tall
Nearly everyone else is walking taller than us...(01 of05)
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America under Obama is 6.5% ahead of its pre-recession peak, which may be linked to his economic stimulus. Meanwhile, France, which Tory MPs mock as a "failing" economy, is just 0.3% behind its pre-recession peak, already nearer to a full recovery than than Britain.
The UK is set to fall behind in the 'global race' (02 of05)
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Despite coalition rhetoric that the UK is in a "global race" against other countries, the Office for Budget Responsibility, the government's independent watchdog, warned that they expect the UK's share of the export market to keep shrinking as it loses out to competitors over the next few years.
Osborne will keep struggling to get Britain exporting (03 of05)
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Despite Osborne warning in his Budget that he wants businesses to export more, the OBR predicts that the UK's exports will still fail to make a net contribution to the country's growth. It said: "Net trade is expected to make little contribution to growth over the remainder of the forecast period, reflecting the weakness of export market growth and a gradual decline in export market share."
Britons are getting more in debt (04 of05)
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Despite Osborne promising that "we’re getting on top of our debts", the OBR predicts that household debt is set to take an be even bigger than expected as compared to workers' pay packets.
The country's own debt is still rising (05 of05)
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Osborne pledged to ensure that debt was falling by 2015-2016 in his first budget, but now is set to see debt only start to fall by 2016-2017 as it soars further and further past £1 trillion

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