Hands Off Hammond: He Might Save The Tories

It would be very foolish for the redneck Brexiteers to force a reshuffle which dumps Hammond. First of all he is the leader of a dwindling band of competent ministers in the cabinet who can think rationally rather then ideologically. Second because business confidence, already fragile because of Brexit chaos, would plunge further. But most of all because reliable rumour has it that he is planning in his Budget to bring down the curtain on austerity, free up local authorities to borrow enabling them to build council houses big time, borrow to renew and develop infrastructure, reform taxation and reboot the economy, setting it back on a growth trajectory.

If he does all that it could transform the political dynamic for the Tories. If the rumour is false and we get more of the dreary same, with an abundance of rhetoric, a shortage of money and a paralysis of action, built on the shifting sands of ever changing forecasts, it matters not whether you dump him or not. The Tory party will be dead anyway.