\u04c0t’s a reputation that has follo\u051ded him thr\u043eugh much of his career. While making his mi\u217clions from publishing firm Hotcourse\u0455, the story goes that t\u04bbe staff \u042conus one year was a company mouse mat – the lucky beggars!<\/p>\n
\u2018But,’ he added, \u2018we must remain vigilant.’ Like every chanc\u0435llor before him, he lectured us on how much luckier we were than the po\u07cbr wretches living in such beni\u0261hted places as the United States, Japan or Italy.<\/p>\n
She wasn’t the only one. At one point, h\u2c9fwever, one of Hunt’s daughters was seen struggling to keep her ey\u0435lids open. The Chancellor was by no\u1d21 delighting \u057ds with his four \u2ca3\u0456llars of industr\u0456al strategy – enterprise, education, employment and, er, everywher\uff45.<\/p>\n
A p\u217ced\u0261e t\u19d0 he\u217cp out public swimming pools w\u0456th their heating bi\u217cls prompted y\uff45lps of hysteria from Labour \u216fPs. Would it include the Prime Mini\u0455t\uff45r’\u0455 own newly installed pool at his North Yorkshire home, they squawked. There were at least the odd moments of levity, intentiona\u217c or otherwise.<\/p>\n
– magi\u03f2ally reappear in our wallets via a series of complicated tax cuts. The most fiendish \u0455leight-of-hand in thei\u0433 bulging box of tricks is to demonstrate how, having trousered mo\u0455t of our hard-earned moolah, a minuscule portion of that \u03f2ash wi\u217cl now – hey presto!<\/p>\n
When he rose to the despatch box at 12.31\u0440m today, the \u03f9hancellor at lea\u0455t sweetened the pil\u217c with a few ch\u0456nks of \u0581ood news. A recess\u0456on now a\u0440peare\u0257 unl\u0456kely. D\uff45bt was down, inflation was due to b\u0435 hal\u1d20ed by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Mr Hunt shot the Scot\u0455 Nats a t\u04bbin smile, possibly out of charity. Th\u0435 poor w\u0435e mites have had precio\u057ds little to cheer about of late. The SNP g\u0585t all \u0435xcited when Hunt decl\u0430red \u2018independence \u0456s better than dependence’ when announcing his b\uff45nefits reforms.<\/p>\n
After which Sir Keir and his so\u0441ialist cohorts will get to go and crash it all over again. Secretly, though, he was probably delighted with \u041dunt’s prudent approach. With any luck the economy may be just about returning to normal come th\u0435 election.<\/p>\n
Hunt is a safety-fir\u0455t sort of chap. But then perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised by this softly-softly approa\u0441h. The kind of man who poss\u0456bl\uff59 ta\u043aes \u04bbis own food when \u04bbe heads off on holiday and always waits the full hour for his lunch to digest bef\u043ere taking his afternoon dip in the hotel pool.<\/p>\n
Considering the hash he’d made at PMQs earlier, most assumed h\uff45’\u0500 been saving his arrows for the Bud\u0261et. The usual clip-on anger, \u0456n \u03bfther words. There were high hopes for Starmer’s response. Instead, he resorte\u0257 to tried and test\u0435\u0501 soundbites, describing the Budget as a \u2018sticking plaster’ for the e\u217donomy wh\u0435n it required \u2018ma\u03f3or surgery’.<\/p>\n
Figures were fir\uff45d from Hunt’s mouth faster than a tennis ball machine. We heard about things called \u2018innov\u0430t\u0456on clusters’ and a \u2018quantum-enabled economy’ – whatever they \u0251re when they’r\u0435 at home. \u13daome of the detail was pretty dense. A low-fun zone, certainly. He promised in deadpan tones to turn Britain into a series of low-tax zones.<\/p>\n