As the long squeeze on spending takes its toll,the risk grows of a Conservative meltdown and a leadership crisisWhile Brexit looms over Westminster like a Zeppelin, draining the energies and anxieties of the political class – and will execute so for the foreseeable future – the electoral ground war owes much more to austerity and its impact. What animates voters in their daily lives is not the single market but schools; not Michel Barnier but maternity wards. That much was one of the indeniable lessons of final year’s general election.
It is in this context that Philip Hammond will deliver his spring statement on Tuesday – the first such speech in the new fiscal calendar that will restrict the chancellor of the day to a single annual “fiscal event” (the autumn budget). We are told to expect a performance of about 25 minutes, or conspicuously missing announcements on taxation and spending,low-key rather than sensational. The theatre of the statement will be the absence of theatre.
Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk