The Treasury understands that shutdowns and reopenings can seriously distort growth and joblessness figures
There’s a scene in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia when the clever, media-hungry English don, Bernard, thinks he has got one over on his rival by discovering something new about Lord Byron. He plans to publish his findings in a suitably august academic journal, where he promises the write-up will be “absolutely gloat-free”.
Rishi Sunak’s response to the barrage of good news that has been emerging about the UK economy in the past few weeks has also been gloat-free. The chancellor of the exchequer has expressed modest pleasure at official figures showing a pick-up in activity and a fall in the jobless rate, but he certainly hasn’t been banging the drum for boom-boom Britain.
