GDP growth is strong but it masks UK plc’s deep-seated structural problems

‘The Tories handed over an economy where the structural problems were as deep – and often even more acute – than they were in 2010.’ Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Britain had the fastest-growing economy in the G7 in the first half of this year. The unemployment rate is coming down and so is wage inflation. As Jim Callaghan never quite said as he arrived back in the country during the winter of discontent: crisis? What crisis?

Last week’s release of key economic indicators were not exactly supportive of the government’s argument that it was handed a country in worse shape than at any time since 1945. That’s quite a claim when quarterly growth is running at 0.6%, the annual inflation rate is 2.2% and unemployment is 4.2%.