Britain rejects EC call to cut deficit faster

Telegraph
""We think the EU has got the judgment wrong," Liam Byrne, Treasury Chief Secretary, told BBC radio on Tuesday."We think the plan that they've set out would require us to take something like £20bn more out of the economy by 2014-15 and we think that would do irreparable damage to public services or to taxpayers." ...The Conservatives, whose lead in the polls has slipped in recent weeks, seized on the EU report. They have promised to take quicker action on tackling the deficit than either the Labour government or the Liberal Democrat party and have warned that Britain's triple-A credit rating was under threat because of government profligacy."What has to be done now is to get this debt rapidly under control and get the bulk of the structural deficit, get rid of it during the next parliament and I also think one needs to start now," said Conservative business spokesman Ken Clarke."