Budget bits

Some budget commendations: Ed Conway at Sky News for quickly getting to the graph that showed year-by-year how much more UK (Labour) Ltd is borrowing; Julian Worricker for an exemplary round-up discussion on Radio 4's World Tonight. No-one's quite got to the churning reaction in shares, gilts and the value of sterling, as younger traders dealers peruse the views of the pundits in papers like the Mail and Telegraph. 

I'm generally against asking questions to which there are no answers, but it's worth identifying some very big and difficult loose ends left for Phase 2 of the spending review:  "The Spending Review (SR) now moves to Phase 2, which will conclude in late spring 2025. Phase 2 will take a mission-led, reform-driven, technology-enabled approach to funding public services while investing in long-term growth."

This bit needs to set five year plans. Will it be defence by drones ?  Will we stop building hospitals and build 'neighbourhood health centres' instead ?  What are we going to do about taxing petrol and diesel v electricity in the race to lower emissions ? Surely freezing fuel duty is not a long-term answer. If new roads are largely off the agenda, what do we do best with money raised from Vehicle Excise Duty ? How will we solve the lack of prison places with a Home Office budget cut ?  What on earth are we going to do about social care ?