The withdrawal of the cash-for-bangers scheme has had a disastrous effect on new car registrations, ONS figures show.

New registrations dropped from 140,000 in January to 65,000 in February. Last October the figure was 166,000.

This is not a fragile recovery; it is an industrial base flat on its back…and unable to move without more QE – which we don’t have, and even if we did, dare not use for fear of upping the cost of our borrowing.

As The Slog has been saying for months, the sooner we accept the pain and speed up our national debt repayments, the better. Removing the drip feed from a dead horse is not going to kill it twice: Osborne is right, as is the CBI – the priority is the debt.