As recession looms, the Bank of England’s independence is under threat

The Bank’s monetary policy committee has raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage points to 1.75%. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

The economic picture painted by the Bank of England of the years ahead was unremittingly grim: a long recession, high inflation, falling living standards. It would be hard to find a worse set of conditions for a government before a general election.

Threadneedle Street was taking plenty of flak even before it announced its latest gruesome forecasts. It can expect no letup now, because the government will need to find a scapegoat for the misery to come.