BORROWING, the reduction of which has been at the heart of the Goverment’s economic policy along with unemployment, are both up while growth, along with unemployment consumer and business confidence, are down.

The economy is much weaker than it was in the autumn of last year when George Osborne told us it was out of danger.

Yet for all of this, most pundits would agree that if there were a general election tomorrow it is the Conservatives that would probably win the overall majority that they failed to achieve in 2010.

So why has the honeymoon lasted so much longer than most of us expected?

Labour has failed to gain any traction and probably the time is not far away when the leadership issue can be ignored no longer.

Ed Miliband has failed to grow into the job and is fast becoming the Iain Duncan Smith of the Labour party – an intelligent and decent man but just not up to the task.

However, it is the Liberal Democrats for whom the nightmare never seems to end.

The party was punished without mercy at the local elections in May when on the same day, its great hope for electoral reform was kicked into the long grass for at least a generation.

And the latest humiliation has come with the move by the Prime Minister that takes the UK not just off the top table of Europe but out of the building and possibly towards an exit from the top club.

But they are powerless to do anything.

A pull-out of the coalition would lead to electoral oblivion.

Unless a miracle happens after the next general election, whenever it happens, they will be able to hold meetings of their parliamentary party in the back of a taxi cab.

But a week is a long time in politics and so the only option is to hold their noses and hope that a miracle happens.

At least holding the local council seat in Bishop’s Castle was a flicker of light in the darkness.