UK Economy: It will be a bad day for George Osborne.....

Tomorrow (Tuesday), the Chancellor George Osborne, will deliver his Autumn Statement and while his own side have reason to bow their heads, Labour will no doubt be smirking with delight at his discomfort.

It will be a bad day for him. Experts have forecast that the UK is on the verge of a double-dip recession and unlikely to recover until Spring next year. His "Plan A", an austerity package of measures with deep cuts in spending, is not working, with growth in the economy stunted and unemployment reaching new heights.

Even those on his own side are now calling for a less savage approach to reducing the country's debt, but it could be more than a little awkward for the Chancellor to backtrack on his original, ultra-macho, plan. If he shows any signs of discarding it, the City institutions will punish him and the government so harshly that he would feel less pain being placed in a drum of oil and slowly boiled.

He is going to have to walk a tightrope between putting some life in the economy, without backing down from his crusade to cut expenditure and public sector jobs. It will not be an easy task, especially with a growing number of his own supporters urging a less aggressive policy.

As for the opposition, Labour needs to be careful not to be seen to be too smug. The majority in the country still hold it responsible for the mess we are in and Mr Miliband and Mr Balls have yet to convince us otherwise.