Any response this early to a budget is hardly well informed, until all the small print has been digested, but so obvious were the needs of the hour and so glaring was the inability to grip them, the overview is more than enough to condemn this second Hammond budget as a shocking waste of time.
What was called for was a radical stimulus to lift GDP to a higher level, sufficient to deal with the deficit, pay down debt, stimulate enough revenue to restore public services and set Britain on a steady course for future prosperity in or out of the EU, hard or soft Brexit. Pressing social issues involving healthcare, social care, education, universal credit, and affordable public housing demanded action now.
There was tinkering at the margins of all these issues with promises of jam tomorrow, a proposition devalued by the sad fact that with this government and treasury model, tomorrow never comes. What is coming is lacklustre growth far into the future, bumping along the bottom at just above 1%. America, the EU and Asia are all doing better and once again will draw ahead. Britain is drifting into the slow lane and Hammond is making sure we stay there. The question on every lip in Westminster will soon be, how long will he stay at the treasury?
Meanwhile the eye catching abolition of stamp duty for first time buyers on cheaper properties will simply push up house prices, so the net effect to first time buyers will be less tax but more borrowing. The public are utterly fed up with these theatrical con tricks, to gain a dumb cheer from the Tory benches on budget day, which unravel within hours.