The deluded chancellor is at it again as Rachel Reeves prepares her second “one-time-only” tax-raising and debt-increasing autumn Budget. After last year’s Budget, the chancellor declared: “We will never need to do another budget like this again… We have now set the envelope for spending for this parliament, and we are not going to be coming back with more tax increases or, indeed, with more borrowing.”

But Rachel Reeves has spent much of the past month suggesting that it would be necessary to raise income-tax rates in the next budget. But now Reeves has U-turned on her U-turn. Having spent weeks suggesting the dire state of the public finances necessitated income tax rises, she appears to have changed her mind again. According to reports, Reeves was told by the God-like Office for Budget Responsibility this week that the government’s financial shortfall will be not quite as large as first forecasted – closer to £20 billion than £30 billion. This ‘good news’ apparently allowed Reeves to back down on some of her floated increases in income tax rates. There’s little doubt that political expediency also played a significant role in this U-turn on a U-turn.

This government seems to have absolutely no idea how to tackle Britain’s profound economic challenges. So let’s imagine an alternative approach: a new government is elected next week, with a mandate to fix things. What sort of budget could it come up with in the interests of the country?

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