The chancellor will deliver his first spring budget today. It is generally expected that, in contrast to his showy predecessor, he will be concerned to play up his reputation as a safe pair of hands. Some technical changes to tax collection and an economy that failed to live up to some of the dire predictions following the EU referendum may have delivered a bonus in time for this budget. The Conservatives’ economic record can be summarised by one simple statistic. The UK is the only large, developed economy…

Source: The Times March 08, 2017 02:48 UTC