In his response to the COVID-19 crisis, Rishi Sunak, chancellor of the exchequer, has shown himself to be flexible and pragmatic. This Budget reinforces that impression. But it tells us four more important things. One is that the pandemic is going to leave a nasty long-term legacy.
Another is that Sunak wants to hold on to the mantle of fiscal sobriety. A third is that this government is abandoning the economic ideas it clung on to for so long. The last is that the government has no growth strategy. One might describe this as old-fashioned realistic Conservatism. An alternative label might be defeatism.
Financial Times