This is a Budget for the British worker, proclaimed Chancellor John Healey as he stood in the House of Commons to deliver his first economic statement. That is a stretch, I think, given that the Budget raised our taxes to the highest level since the Second World War.

Nonetheless, the workers will be more satisfied this morning, not because of what Mr Healey offered us but because he offered not very much at all. There was no rabbit out of the hat, just a few hamsters, the largest of which was the £100 energy bung for a limited number of households. It was not a particularly good idea, but as bad ideas go, it is less bad than the whoppers we were given by Mr Healey’s predecessor, Rachel Reeves.

So, no, this was not a Budget for the workers, but it was not a Budget against workers either, and for that we can all be thankful. The press were unimpressed because it gave them little to speak and write about. The Tories were unimpressed because the usually dangerous Kemi Badenoch was neutralised by the Budget’s boringness. And the markets were calm. Job done, as far as the Chancellor is concerned. One gets the impression he rather revels in being a boring baldy bank manager.

Listening to Mr Healey on Wednesday gave me reason to wonder if he, rather than his boss Andy Burnham, is the more potent weapon. Of course, Mr Burnham is the communicator of the two, but it is far from clear that his lefty cosplay is in any way popular amongst the taxpaying, voting population who consider the social contract between them and government to be broken.

Reform UK’s Scottish experiment is already falling apart. Who will quit next?

The SNP has a problem it can no longer dodge if it wants........

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