Conservative economic policy trivia corner

One of the two men George Osborne says are his key advisers on the economic framework he wants to put in place is Alan Budd.

He was chief economic adviser at the Treasury when Britain was in deep recession in the early 1990s, including before and during Black Wednesday, when sterling crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), destroying the Government’s then economic policy and costing over £3 billion.

Let’s hope he’s learnt a thing or two…