Furthering the plot

The spiral tightens a bit:

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's today downgraded its outlook for the British economy, saying it had grown increasingly worried about the country's ballooning budget deficit. It also warned there was a "one-in-three chance" that Britain's credit rating may be cut.

As well as makes a few more rotations:

The International Monetary Fund urged the government on Wednesday to act faster once the economy was recovering to get the public finances under control by cutting public spending plans or raising taxes.

Warning that the “success of the current policy package hinges on the continued trust in the sustainability of the fiscal position”, IMF officials called for the government also to specify how it planned to limit public spending, to allocate any surprise tax revenue growth to deficit reduction and to build a broad public consensus for bringing the government books closer to balance.

They also favoured cutting spending plans rather than tax increases to improve the public finances, because the fund believes that evidence from Canada, Australia and Denmark shows lower public spending is the more durable policy.

Tic, toc, tic, toc