As Philip Hammond rose to the despatch box to deliver his Spring Statement, the Chancellor must have felt like someone who wanted to talk about the funny noise the radiator was making half-way through extra-time of England’s World Cup semi-final last summer. Everyone’s attention was understandably elsewhere. If he was feeling mischievous he could have probably abolished inheritance tax, or slapped VAT on children’s clothes, safe in the knowledge that amid all the Brexit chaos it would have been safely forgotten by about 2pm.
And yet, even by his own lugubrious standards, Hammond surely missed an opportunity. There is nothing wrong with a bit of small-scale fiddling – a review of the link between bio-diversity and growth, for example, is no doubt worthy enough but hardly earth-shattering – but it doesn’t answer any big questions. In truth, the Chancellor should have seized the moment to assume ‘no deal’ and launch an ambitious strategy to steer the British economy through an abrupt departure from the EU.
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