Primondell provides commentary behind the headlines
You might have thought that the first statement that Philip Hammond made as Chancellor would be the most important but in the Autumn statement he made it very clear that the main platform for announcing changes to the tax system would be in his official Budgets. We are due to have two in 2017; one in the Spring and one in the Autumn.
The Spring Budget occurs fairly close to the London Marathon and the comparison is apt. So far, we have been on an eight-year marathon to eliminate the budget deficit. Like for marathon runners, the longer it goes on the harder it gets. These marathon runners complete their course in the day whereas we are only the equivalent of 18 miles into the marathon and the last eight could prove the most painful.
If economy had been suffering from post- BREXIT stress disorder, then a higher budget deficit would be easier to justify. Paradoxically, the better the economy performs, the less excuse the Chancellor has to delay in dealing with it.
We can expect some interesting medicine in this the first post referendum Budget and Primondell will be providing a commentary that looks behind the headlines and delves deeper than the initial “red top” reaction.
