For your first budget, this may be no bad thing: we can all think of plenty of chancellors who have done untold damage. Take a bow George Osborne. It might just have been better if the doctor that Healey had chosen to impersonate was not Dr Death.
John can’t help looking like the last man you would want to stop by your hospital bed. Not everyone can have a naturally sunny disposition. His face seems to be carved out of despair.
But it would be a big help if, when called upon to make his most important speech of the year, he didn’t reinforce the impression when he opened his mouth. A one-way journey to the slough of despond. You have months to live.” And just when you are trying to process what he’s said and are preparing to say your goodbyes, he would let you know he had made a mistake.
You only had weeks to live after all. He would then smile wanly, pat you on the shoulder before moving on to kill off his next patient. You wouldn’t be seeing him again.
Healey began with a few cheery words. Cheery by his standards, that is. This was a budget for working people.
People often talked about global headwinds. John was here to let us know that these headwinds were more like a storm. One we’d all be lucky to come out of alive.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
