Robert Chote is the right man for the OBR

Say what you like about George Osborne but the chancellor is not in the game of appointing stuffed shirts to his various creations. The Banking Commission, examining the case for banking reform, has a healthy dose of free-thinking individuals whose conclusions should not be second-guessed. Now Osborne wants Robert Chote to be chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility , the body charged with producing credible economic forecasts. Chote is the economist who declared that the austerity budget was definitely not progressive, as the chancellor had claimed. The Treasury was sufficiently annoyed to declare the numbers "flaky". But not so flaky, it seems, as to prevent Chote's recruitment. Quite right, too: almost everybody seems to agree that he is the outstanding candidate for the OBR, a body in need of a boost in the credibility stakes. This is a strong appointment. In the end, though, it will be the accuracy of the OBR's forecasts that matters. Being independently-minded is one thing; being right is another.