Philip Hammond, the man the Tories have tasked with overseeing spending cuts should they get into power next year, has just given a speech to Policy Exchange on reducing waste and improving efficiency. Much of it reheated existing arguments about, say, transparent public spending – which doesn’t make those arguments any less valid. But there are one or two other points worth mentioning here
First, the very fact that Hammond was making this speech. Introducing him, George Osborne complained that the Labour government has made Hammond’s potential role – Chief Secretary to the Treasury – a non- job, and that the Tories would restore it to being “one of the most important jobs I’m government”. For the time being, this is all presentational stuff intended to send a message out to investors: that the Cameroons are taking the fiscal crisis seriously.
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