“What we got instead was a list of spending promises with a host of numbers that, without context, mean very little.

It’s great for the fine people of Kirkaldy that there is some money for their high street, but why on Earth is that making it into what is one of the most significant speeches of the parliament?

The answer: because our government and our politicians are hooked on the spending drug.

The big opening scene-setter for the Chancellor’s speech today was to contrast the real terms increases in spending she was granting with the cuts that the coalition made in 2010 following the financial crash. The message was ‘we’re better because we spend more’. But it only takes a glance at the public finances – and state of the economy more broadly – to see that more spending does not necessarily equal better outcomes. In fact, it often means the opposite.”

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