OBR predictions vary wildly. It's time for the Treasury to take back control

Any national budgetary process involves careful deliberation, refining forecasts and making difficult judgement calls about the economic and political reaction.

- By Will Hutton

But the events of the past four or five weeks go well beyond that. The degree of public kite-flying, improbable oscillations between economic projections and straightforward indecision has reached the absurd - and caused avoidable economic damage.

It is toytown budgetary policymaking, all in plain sight. Fundamental questions have been raised about the viability of the "ironclad" fiscal framework, the institutional machinery of British budget-making and the lack of surefootedness of Labour's economic and political leadership. They will not be easily dispelled.

The chancellor's volte-face on the proposed manifesto-breaking rise in income taxes crystallised the concerns, allegedly excused because the most recent economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) were suddenly more optimistic. It is not an explanation that passes muster with economic forecasters.

The OBR