Group of economists criticise severity of government spending cuts

Group of economists criticise severity of government spending cuts; ENGLAND: London: GIR: INT Jonathan Portes (National Institute f Economic and Social Research) interview SOT - Plan B is to....reduce the frontloaded nature of some of the spending cuts so we don't have the contractionary fiscal policy bearing down on the economy when it is weak /...Not necessary to cut so fast so quickly / Growth has been precisely zero / Zero last quarter and zero the quarter before that.../ Significantly worse than even relatively pessimistic predictions / Worse than my own institute predicted / What we are saying is that the downside risks of over-aggressive fiscal consolidation are beginning to materialise and that strengthens the case for adjusting course..../...You lose credibility by continuing with a strategy that doesn't appear to be working