There is no shortage of gloom on the public finances. The numbers look so appalling you can’t help but pray they are based one some dodgy assumptions that will soon be proved wrong. To cheer myself up ahead of the Treasury Christmas drinks, I thought it would be worthwhile to review them with some rose tinted spectacles, giving a fiscal view of the world that is so rosy even Gordon Brown would blush. Here are the five things to pray for:

1) Unemployment: The Treasury took the unexpected step of publishing internal unemployment forecasts this year. When you see how they compare to the National Audit Office numbers (which form the basis for the public finance projections) you can see why. The NAO, on which the PBR projections are based, think unemployment will rise to about 1.9m by 2010 and stay at that level till 2014. By 2012 there is a 700,000 difference with the Treasury estimate, which is the equivalent of an extra £3.5bn a year, if the Treasury figures prove to be correct. Read more

So even ministers are human, it transpires. Mike O’Brien, minister for health service, claimed for a huge amount of junk food in his spring 2008 expenses: including

28 ready meals, 20 mini doughnuts, jumbo wedges, banoffi tart, 20 choc ices, lollies, puddings, Fox’s sweets, rice puddings, glacier mints and more…… Read more

France set to impose its own 50 per cent bankers’ bonus tax

Where Alistair Darling was a little economical with the truth in the PBR Read more