 The Chancellor's autumn Statement comes at a critical time for the British economy. Growth forecasts have already shrunk from the two and a half per cent predicted earlier this year by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development believes that the British economy will fall back into mild recession next year. The crisis within the eurozone continues unabated, threatening to derail every economy in Europe. as the poll we publish today shows, Britons are extremely anxious about their economic future: most expect to be worse off in the coming months.  The pressure is therefore on George Osborne to come up with measures that will promote growth - and rightly so. We understand that the Chancellor will probably freeze fuel duty, abandoning the increases that were planned for January and august 2012, and that he will allow rail companies to increase their fares by a maximum of six rather than eight per cent. Those measures will certainly be of help to the "squeezed middle" - but no one is pretending that they are more than a sticking-plaster solution.  Is there scope for the Chancellor to do more? Our poll today indicates that many wish he would. at the same time, the public's great fear is that the squeeze on disposable income will increase. One of the fastest ways for the Government to jack up inflation would be to abandon its strategy for reducing the deficit, and cover the gap between expenditure and revenue by printing money. Heeding the calls of the deficit deniers, and increasing spending, would shake the confidence of the bond markets, provoking a significant increase in interest rates that would choke off whatever chance there is of recovery.  The Chancellor's options are, therefore, extremely limited. Set against that background, we are surprised by the idea that Chris Huhne is set to announce that around ?1billion will be devoted to helping african nations deal with the effects of climate change over the next four years. While we appreciate the need to help the world's poorest people, and admire the moral zeal behind the Coalition's commitment to international development, it is not easy to endorse spending taxpayers' money in this way at this of all times. There are, after all, more than a million young Britons without jobs, and it appears that the economic situation will only deteriorate. The politics of this gesture are also difficult to understand. Hard-working families naturally, and rightly, believe that their Government's first duty is to protect their interests. While it is true that, ultimately, we all live on 