I went to the offices of the Sunday Times yesterday to do a quick interview with economics editor David Smith. Insightful as ever, David shared his thoughts by St Katherine Docks on UK growth, the future of the euro and the US debt crisis.

David said that an impartial observer would downgrade the US credit rating, but this would mean downgrading the entire global economy at a time of low confidence. Given the problems faced by the US and the eurozone, David was mixed about the outlook for the UK economy: in difficult times stability is “not bad”, he said, but borrowing and the budget deficit remain problems that need to be tackled.