Credit ratings agency Moodys believes the U.K. is very close to futher AAA downgrading, The Slog has learned. This adds to the opinions already monitored by us from Fitch and Standard & Poors.

We understand the continually rising cost of UK borrowing being quoted to the British Government lies behind the Moodys revelation. This is the start of a vicious circle the UK will not snip without very urgent attention to the deficit – and adds weight to the arguments yet again put forward in today’s FT by Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

UPDATE AS I WRITE: Bloomberg confirms some of this in a piece on its site today. CEO Pierre Cailleteau is quoted as saying:

“We expect the situation to further deteriorate in terms of the key ratings metrics”.

Editor’s note: a rough translation of Cailleteau would be ‘stone in the water’.