Close your eyes, and you could have been listening to Gordon Brown in his pomp. Seven billion for schools. Six billion for the NHS. Money for youth centres, the police, and social care with overall spending rising at the fastest rate for fifteen years. If Chancellors were measured simply by their ability to spend more of other people’s money than any of their rivals – and in truth plenty of them see that as their main goal – then Sajid Javid would have already got off to a great start. But will it be enough to win the looming election? Sure, it will help – but he will need to do a lot more to command a majority for his Prime Minister.
It is a long time since we have seen a Chancellor as free-spending as this. Philip Hammond seemed happy simply to move the paperclips around on his desk while keeping the books in order.
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