Dean Arthur

😬 Nick Ferrari properly embarrassed the Chancellor on @LBC this morning by mocking his Budget. The first 30 seconds of the interview basically summed the whole thing up. He didn’t ease in. He went straight for the jugular and treated the Budget like the joke it is: “4p off the price of gherkins, 2p on a pint and a return to public/private partnership. This is not groundbreaking, Chancellor!” That’s it. That’s the big offer. 🤷‍♂️ Healey immediately said he “disputes that” and tried the old “if I can do the small things, I should do them” line, then claimed credit for freezing fuel duty. Ferrari was having none of it: “That was already frozen, wasn’t it? Where’s the big BOLD ideas, Chancellor?” And that was basically the interview. They could’ve ended it there. This Budget has gone down like a lead balloon. It does almost nothing for anyone. No one is coming away from it today thinking things are turning. It’s just a dull, unambitious continuation of the Starmer-Reeves government, the same tinkering, the same lack of vision, the same refusal to actually change anything that matters. The Burnham bounce is well and truly over. He talked a big game: we’ll do this, we’ll do that, things have to change, government working for the people, blah blah blah. Then he delivers this. 💀