What has ‘deadweight’ got to do with Rishi Sunak’s magic money tree?

I was trying to understand what they meant on the wireless by deadweight costs. These were something to do with the magic money that Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, was throwing out from his tree. Then my eye was caught by my husband dozing over his newspaper where a little patch of whiskyish dribble had spread over the business pages, and I felt enlightenment.

Deadweight itself is plain enough. In the 17th century, when the earliest examples appeared, deadweight meant a static mass, as opposed to a mass in movement possessing kinetic energy. A deadweight, though, might drive clockwork by hanging from the works.

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Ross Clark

Britain is living beyond its means

In the 19th century, which I regard as yesterday, every political soul would have recognised a reference to deadweight. After Waterloo, the government found itself having to pay £5 million a year in pensions for sailors and soldiers.