Comment
Hold the Popcorn
I thought I would settle down in a comfortable armchair, laptop fully-charged, anything throwable at the TV moved out of reach and a nice bowl of popcorn on a nearby coffee table whilst I flicked between the budget and Holyrood. Needn’t have bothered. Nicola used her terminological effusion to excuse her memory failings and proclaim her victimhood, whilst Rishi steered a middling course througha mountain of debt by upping Corporation Tax with one hand and balancing it with a huge chunk of tax relief on business investments– probably the two most contentious or welcome announcements of a budget designed in most part to kick the most objectionable bits down the road for another couple of years (aka fiscal drag) whilst ensuring that the cost of the pandemic doesn’t knock us off course from a gradual post-Brexit return to liquidity.
Delighted, meanwhile, that he took up my suggestionin the last newsletter that the route to regenerating the industry lies in wider adoption of the latest technologies – i.e., investing in the tools that enable us to build back better(I’m not ashamed to admit I steal soundbites from politicians – Boris or Joe Biden, whoever said it first), andthe general feelingis that we have weathered the worst and are planning for a strong recovery. Another good move? Re-locating the Treasury to Darlington. That’s going to shift a couple of grand off the house prices in London and transfer them to the North East, probably piffling, but it’s a start.
David Chadwick
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