Britain’s last budget in the EU is a sticking plaster for a nation in decline | Polly Toynbee

The economic blowback from Brexit is unknowable, but even so, Philip Hammond is fixing none of the country's woes

Here was a pothole budget, a light spray of makeshift asphalt over the riskiest craters in the public sector. The end of austerity? No, just minor repairs to a little of the damage they have done; things sounding good but signifying little.

This was a traditional Tory budget, with benefits still frozen for the poorest while three-quarters of the winnings from raising personal tax allowances flow to the top half of earners. As John Major warned, universal credit would have collapsed, and taken the government with it, without a bung. Enough? Its structural defects may sink it yet. Welcome gestures, like taxing the Amazons and Googles, turn out to be a slap on the wrist. A one-off 10,000 gift per primary school is almost insulting, as was the small sop for social care, while police and local councils are left high and dry.

Welcome gestures, like taxing the Amazons and Googles, turn out to be a slap on the wrist

Related: Budget 2018: Jeremy Corbyn lambasts 'broken promise budget' - Politics live

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