The chancellor’s spring budget delivered today was a warm-up to the main event of this year’s November budget. Mr Hammond is seeking, rightly, to correct that with a “rights and responsibilities” model. The next step would be to go after the companies who use self-employment as a way of dodging national insurance. Yet Mr Hammond has no long-term answers for an ageing society. It was bizarre for Mr Hammond not to trumpet spending measures such as housebuilding to boost growth.

Source: The Guardian March 08, 2017 19:52 UTC