Less Rabbits, More Carrots on Sticks: This budget will not change what the Conservatives want to change
One of the first things you’ll notice about Jeremy Hunt’s budget is that it once again becomes part of the Conservative Party’s ‘big theatrics.’
What I mean by this is that in very quick succession over the last few weeks, we have seen some extremely ‘loud’ Red Meat announcements that provide an indication that the government wants to be seen as doing something even if, it turns out, that it’s not and its performance remains unconvincing.
The intention is to shift numbers when it comes to voting intention. That is all. The problem for Sunak is that Britain merely shrugs at everything he does.
Two weeks ago, it was the Windsor Framework.
Aside from the salience of the issue providing a damp squib for Sunak’s electoral fortunes and there being no remarkable shift in the polls, nothing has happened since; we still await the verdict of the DUP and ERG star chamber of constitutional lawyers looking to tell us all the reasons why they cannot support it.
Or in Brexit vernacular, there’s a chance that it will be ‘not quite done’.
In fact, in the last few days alone there is every indication based on the language provided by the DUP over the Windsor Framework that they’re quite prepared to railroad Sunak as a result of it being “insufficient” in its current form.
Last week, we had the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’, too.
Almost everybody who follows politics outside of the more ‘right-wing’ contingent of Conservatives believe that it is “doomed to fail” in its current form.
“Unworkable”, probably illegal, supported by very few of their core voters, loathed by their own MPs, set to be shredded by the Lords, its delivery doubted by almost everybody, it is now subject to the arduous process of becoming an Act of Parliament.
The process will take considerable time; our descent into fascism will be very slow and we may very well not slide down the slippery slope after all.
This week, we have Jeremy Hunt’s Spring budget.