Don’t do it by halves, Hammond

THERESA May has so far shown only a talent for slogans.

We know that the PM wants to see “a country that works for everyone”, that “Brexit means Brexit” and that we should “seize the day”.

That day is Wednesday. And when Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers his Autumn Statement we will know if Mrs May has seized it.

This is the opportunity for her government to set out its stall, something it has so far singularly failed to do.

Instead we have heard only fine words. Now we need deeds to go with them.

The PM has correctly identified the constituency to which she must appeal – the Jams in Whitehall’s new jargon, the Just About Managing.

Spending on infrastructure is welcome. Though we would prefer to see an HS3 rail link connecting Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Hull to a new £27million road between Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge.

It is the turn of the North of England to get the development money it needs to enable it to prosper.

That’s the way to create a country that works for everyone. Otherwise it’s a country which only works for the southern half where most Tories, including Mrs May, live.

Mr Hammond is tipped to freeze fuel duty which is also welcome.

And as the Sunday Mirror reveals today he has a VAT cut up his sleeve which would help business and consumers alike.

Brexit will cost £100billion. To those who voted for it that might be a price worth paying to cut our EU apron strings.

But it means economic restructuring to ensure those who feel traditional politics has let them down are not further left behind.

It means that putting money into the economy and our pockets must take priority over paying off the nation’s debt.

This is not about the politics of left or right. It is about getting the politics right.

Otherwise voters turn in despair to the likes of dangerous Donald Trump in America or scary Marine Le Pen in France.

Mrs May knows this. Yet so far she has not demonstrated she knows what to do about it.

That’s what Wednesday’s Autumn Statement should be about.

Slogans are not enough to put food on tables and roofs over heads.