You could easily blink and miss it, but the Financial Times this morning confirms The Slog’s speculation about Britain’s de facto lost credit rating.

In the FT piece, we can see the beginnings of what are certain to become increasingly expensive borrowing strictures faced by the UK. The paper notes:

‘British government debt is already trading at prices that suggest it has lost its prized top credit rating, heightening concerns that investors already view gilts as less than triple A-rated assets and demand greater rewards for holding them.
Since the end of November, the gap between the interest rate Britain and Germany must pay on 10-year government debt has risen from 0.35 percentage points to 0.9 points.’

We are now paying higher rates than Italy. This is partly the market responding to the obvious nature of the hole we’re in, but also a result of controlled leaks put out by the credit agencies such as Fitch and S&P, and picked up by Slog US sources nearly a month ago (see link above).

Time the Tories picked this sort of stuff up….wake up Osborne.