Ooops George. Learn how to count.

12.35.32pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 15th Oct 2009

George Osborne announced at the Conservative Conference that he would bring forward the rise in the state pension age to 66 in 2016 for men and 2020 for women claiming that the National Institute for Economic & Social Research (NIESR) had said that this would save £13bn a year. But the NIESR said he'd got it wrong & the benefit would take five years longer and be £3bn less. Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott said: "This saga of incompetence shoots to pieces his claims to be a responsible Chancellor." David Blanchflower, respected economist and former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, writing in the Guardian said: "The Tory economic proposals have the potential to push the British economy into a death spiral of decline that would be almost impossible to reverse for a generation". A spokesperson for Osborne admitted that the NIESR was right & the figure should have been £10bn.