'Cautious' George Osborne has damaged the economy, says senior Tory MP But he added: "That is precisely why it is so curious that he has proven to be so timid on the one, over-riding issue so fundamental to the life of this Parliament: restoring economic growth. It is not that we have lacked announcements - they have been allowed to dribble out in a hesitant and rather timid way throughout our time in office. And the Government has made commendable progress in protecting our reputation internationally whilst taking up the cudgels against tax evasion. We have enjoyed some modest successes in some areas, but despite these, our overall policy response has, so far, been found wanting in the relentlessly unforgiving climate of global financial cataclysm. Mr Binley said he was pleased by "most of the measures" in the Budget - which unveiled new plans to help people get on the housing ladder - but he failed "to understand why such serious measures could not have been implemented two years ago. The argument cannot be about protecting our triple-A credit rating, as that has been surrendered with little apparent adverse effect. We are still maxed out on quantitative easing, and the state of the public finances remains dangerously parlous. And it has not been for want of encouragement from various sources, not least from me and a number of my Parliamentary colleagues, that the Government has been so cautious. He said: "Frustratingly, I have been urging the Chancellor to develop his more natural instincts in the way that he leads our economic policy since he took office. Shifting the housing market - and the provision of support for the construction sector in encouraging home improvements - is a positive source for confidence-building growth. The Government could have provided a spur to this sector in the economy a long time ago - and, in all likelihood, would have achieved a great deal more (and sooner) than the development control reforms consuming Parliamentary debate last week. As we await the numbers which define our fate for the last quarter, it seems timely to reflect on what more could have been done. I hope that we avoid the triple-dip, and that our path to recover gathers momentum. But I will take a lot of convincing that we would not have been able to have done quite a lot more a good deal sooner to improve our economic prospects, and to have sailed to safer, calmer and more prosperous waters had we followed an alternative course. And that is the explanation we should seek from the Chancellor - we must stop this uncharacteristically obstructive timidity. There's still time for Mr Osborne to be really, really bold.