Quote of the day 17th November 2022

"No budget or other financial speech has ever been so comprehensively trailed as the Autumn Statement delivered by Jeremy Hunt today. 

"So the main surprises were not about the measures but, rather, the man. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is as always understated, but this time he was so brisk, so lucid, so clearly the master of his brief, that it took an effort to recall that he was only summoned from semi-retirement on the backbenches just over a month ago. 

"The woman who appointed him, Liz Truss, may have damaged her own reputation beyond repair, but she did her party and the country an invaluable service by rehabilitating Mr Hunt. He exudes the confidence that the financial world craved and the markets have duly rewarded him by easing the pressure on sterling, gilts and interest rates. 

"Today’s statement, billed as a kind of fiscal Iron Maiden to squeeze the lifeblood out of the economy, caused barely a ripple. That is a measure of the Chancellor’s success in reassuring anyone still wondering whether Treasury orthodoxy was back in control."


(Daniel Johnson, opening words of a political and economic assessment of today's statement which you can read on The Article by clicking here.)

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