𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

For a budget designed to give us all some “breathing space” it certainly proved adept at sucking the oxygen out of the room. Because, just days away from Bonfire Night, Chancellor John Healey’s maiden budget was more a damp squib than a firecracker. The £100 towards energy bills might seem welcome – but will be instantly wiped out when the price cap is lifted at the start of the new year. Similarly, the hike in minimum and national living wages seems good news – until employers responded by saying it is highly likely it will result in fewer staff being hired.

In truth, this was more bodge it than budget, as most of the key economic issues were ignored. When we might get to the necessary level of defence spending – an issue that brought about Mr. Healey’s resignation as defence secretary as recently as last June – was answered with being told we must wait until the spending review. As Prime Minister Andy Burnham waffles endlessly and seemingly aimlessly about a new relationship with Europe, what would help stimulate growth? We mustn’t get ahead of the summit later in November.

And the biggest, and costliest elephant in the room, which is our welfare spending, was also dodged. In this year alone the welfare bill will rocket by £19BILLION to £353billion which, in terms you can get your head around, is 11% of what the entire nation produces. And by 2031 that is set to reach a breathtaking total of £431 billion!

People are signing on for benefits of some description at the rate of 1,000 a day and the number of young people not in work or education swells each week. And when asked how he would tackle that ruinous state of financial affairs, all Mr. Healey could muster was “it will be done in a Labour way.”

As I asked at No. 11 two hours after he’d sat down having delivered the budget, what does that precisely mean? Is it as harsh as slashing winter fuel payments for the elderly, or taking cars away from the disabled as this Labour government has done in its first incarnation? You won’t be surprised to hear, answers came there none.

This budget was delivered on the very same day that the then candidate Ronald Reagan took on President Jimmy Carter in a TV debate nearly half a century ago, but ignored his rival and stared down the barrel of the lens before delivering this killer question: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

Days later Carter was obliterated in a wipe out that left him with nothing more than DC and six states of the union. The days of Labour bleating about “14 years of Conservative misrule” are now over – and they’ve been in power for more than half of the last four years. So let me ask that question again: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

It was glorious to see England captain Harry Kane lift the highly prestigious Ballon d’Or trophy last week, as we were briefly able to forget the path of vile commercialism, cynicism, open cheating and self-destruction down which football has chosen to sprint. Instead, we got to celebrate with a genuinely decent man who cares deeply about his family, country and teammates and for whom the richly deserved honour clearly meant so much. It was also heartwarming to see him take his wife and parents as well as other members of his family to a nightclub afterwards to party.

The only blot on the landscape? The ceremony, in England for only the second time in SEVENTY years, had to be delayed as the audience struggled to get to the London Palladium because Oxford Street had been partially pedestrianised that very morning. Trust that (Night) Mayor of London, Lord Khan, to score such a spectacular own goal.

Heard about ‘Dexit?’ The right-wing political party Alternative for Germany (AFD), which is soaring in the polls, last week warned the European Union it must reform or it would pursue a Brexit-style ‘Dexit’ policy. Leader Alice Weidel said: “We would like to rebuild and reform the European Union. The EU is not a group of sovereign states any more. National parliaments and governments need to take over the decision-making process.”

Tellingly, on the very day that message was delivered the EU was debating whether to ban meat flavoured crisps across the entire Continent in a dispute over its laws on plant-based foods. Do you get the feeling the whole enterprise might just have had its (smoky) bacon?

Expenditure to end rough sleeping has been doubled to a total cost of £870million. While undoubtedly a worthy goal, it is estimated there are about 4,600 unfortunate people without a roof over their heads. Which means we are spending £189,000 on each person. Yet another example where government spending needs to be strictly audited.