Britain’s wimpish effort to balance its books
And stores up trouble for the future
Rachel Reeves may not have called her Spring Statement on March 26th a budget, but it certainly felt like one. Speculation grew in the preceding weeks over exactly how deep a fiscal mess Britain’s chancellor had got herself into. Billions in welfare cuts were pre-announced, and then hastily expanded after a spat with the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the fiscal watchdog, over how much they would actually save. The announcements, when they finally came, left Britain’s public finances looking about as rickety as they had been going in.
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