What a difference a year makes! It is amazing to think that just twelve months ago we were listening to a bullish statement from Chancellor George Osborne (his first in a Conservative government), about how the deficit would be turned around to a £10 billion surplus by 2019-20. One year on, post Brexit, a more divided UK and with Donald Trump as President Elect, the world is a very different place.
Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered a much gloomier verdict on the state of the public finances and announced that the economy was expected to be worse off to the tune of £122 billion by 2021 – the cost of Brexit according to some commentators. Much of the recent economic and press coverage had focussed on so-called ‘JAMS’ (Just-About-Managing). On this evidence there seemed to be precious little jam to spread around