Tigger Hammond and a Brexit bounce
THIS was the day Chancellor Philip Hammond – dubbed Eeyore by this paper because of his habitual pessimism – was transformed into the most optimistic character in the Hundred Acre Wood.
‘I am at my most positively Tigger-like,’ he told the Commons.
Indeed, he had plenty to be cheerful about as he outlined the economy’s recent performance and the Office for Budget Responsibility’s upgraded forecasts.
Growth every year since the Tories came to power… manufacturing enjoying its longest unbroken expansion for 50 years… three million more jobs than in 2010... lower unemployment in every part of the UK…
So much for the ‘immediate and profound economic shock’ that Remainers warned would follow a Brexit vote.
As for the future, the rise in employment is set to continue, with real wages going up as inflation dips. And though the OBR remains cautious about growth, the newly optimistic Chancellor rightly points out: ‘Forecasts are there to be beaten.’
Most cheering of all, higher than expected tax receipts mean that for the first time since the financial crisis, day- to- day spending is heading for surplus in 2018-19, while – at long last – debt is set to fall as a proportion of the nation’s output. True, George Osborne promised to achieve this by 2015 – and could have done so, if he’d maintained pressure on spending while there was strong public support. But it’s cause for celebration all the same.
Indeed, the healthier outlook may yet give Mr Hammond room for carefully targeted generosity in his autumn Budget (the nurses spring to mind). But never forget the nation’s debt is almost £2trillion. As Mr Hammond acknowledges, it would be grossly irresponsible to go on a spending spree at the first hint of good news.
Elsewhere, there was much to applaud in his Spring Statement, in which he delivered a stirring defence of free enterprise and job creation (in marked contrast to the Marxist gobbledegook from the Labour benches).
Welcome, too, was his announcement of plans to force tax- dodging digital giants such as Facebook and Google to pay their dues. And the Mail particularly hails his practical support for our campaign to end the scourge of plastic pollution.
One of his proposals, however, should set alarm bells jangling – the suggestion that we get rid of 1p and 2p coins. Do you really want to kill off the coppers in our pockets, Mr Hammond?
They may be annoying small change to the better off, but others who count every
penny will not thank you when traders inevitably round up all those 99p prices. This looks to the Mail like a PR disaster in the making.
But this hostage to fortune aside, it was a good day for Tigger Hammond. With Brexit approaching, and national self belief ever more vital, is it too much to hope we’ve seen the last of Eeyore the Europhile?
BY any standards, it is one of the great social evils of our age. So why has the BBC given such minimal coverage to the weekend revelations that up to 1,000 mostly white teenagers could have been sexually abused by groups of mainly Asian men in Telford, Shropshire? As with its reluctance to mention damning revelations about Max Mosley, who bankrolls Labour’s deputy leader and the UK’s only stateapproved Press regulator, it is increasingly clear the Corporation is simply uninterested in scandals that don’t fit its agenda.
OUT of respect for his ancient office, this column has avoided commenting on the character of Speaker John Bercow, his tawdry domestic troubles, his selfpromoting interventions or the allegations of bullying and bias. But as it emerges that he displays a sticker in his car, proclaiming ‘b******s to Brexit’, isn’t it hard to imagine how he could undermine the dignity and impartiality of his office any further?