Why can’t Mr Carney talk the country up?

FOR Bank of england governor Mark Carney, mistake number one was to throw his weight behind Project Fear, touring TV studios before the referendum to predict doom and disaster if the public dared to vote Leave.

if only he had kept out of the fray, upholding the Bank’s cherished dignity and independence, he could have emerged from the vote with his authority intact, well placed to perform his primary task of boosting confidence in the British economy.

As it is, this self-promoting Canadian, who is said to have political ambitions at home, has come out of it like his patron, George Osborne – with egg on his face.

Now, like the Chancellor, he compounds his folly with mistake number two – relentlessly talking Britain down, while blaming Brexit for problems that have little or nothing to do with it.

indeed, as our City editor Alex Brummer writes on this page, the governor – as if in a fit of pique over voters’ defiance of his warnings – seems determined to prove that everything he said before the referendum is coming true.

With his constant talk of uncertainty, loss of investor confidence and the risk of a ‘technical recession’, isn’t he in acute danger of bringing about everything he claims to fear most?

this is unworthy of him. With shares buoyant, the cheaper pound boosting exporters and countries queuing up to do business with post-Brexit Britain, there’s a hugely optimistic story to be told. Mr Carney should be telling it. Or does he think his injured vanity matters more?

Whatever the truth, he should not be surprised if whoever wins the tory leadership starts looking for a Bank governor who truly believes in Britain and is not trying to engineer a recession.