How times change: seven months ago we were eagerly awaiting the Tiggerish Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s fiscal event, replete with much boosterish briefing about Truss’s tax-cutting zeal. Now we await to see what their respective successors will unveil in one of the least anticipated Budgets of modern times. ‘Under promise and over deliver’ is the mantra of this government and they certainly haven’t promised much in the run-up to tomorrow’s statement. The corporation tax hike is expected to still go ahead; free market fix is out, replaced with the eminently less sexy subject of welfare reform.
And to match the sober rhetoric, Mr S can confirm that Jeremy Hunt is planning on going sober himself in the chamber tomorrow. By tradition, the one time a member of the House of Commons can drink is when delivering a Budget from the despatch box. But Hunt, like his recent predecessors is instead opting for water – appropriate perhaps given his anticipated ‘alcohol tax raid’. The last Chancellor to drink on Budget Day remains Ken Clarke, who favoured a whisky in 1996. Before that there was a long tradition of Chancellors opting for a Treasury tipple. Nigel Lawson enjoyed a spritzer; Geoffrey Howe preferred a G&T. Denis Healey followed Disraeli in having a brandy and water. Hugh Dalton plumped for rum and milk while Gladstone favoured sherry and beaten egg.
Still, perhaps a break with the past of Merrie England is hardly unexpected. After all this Budget is scheduled to coincide with the Cheltenham racing festival – once a grave offence for many Tory MPs. Mr S enjoyed watching vintage footage from 2004 in which several Conservatives expressed their fury at Gordon Brown for doing just that. How times change, eh?
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