Did no one tell Philip Hammond that austerity is raging outside? | Aditya Chakrabortty

Public services are in tatters, interest rates are negligible, and yet in his spring statement the chancellor gives us 'reviews' instead of policies

Listen to Philip Hammond and it's easy to get lulled into a false sense that he is an adult making sober, cautious decisions. Not blessed with the (ahem) charisma of a Boris Johnson, he is happily less given to spouting headline-grabbing rubbish. While his colleagues have spent the past two and a half years promising voters the moon on a stick, the chancellor has kept his cool. The spring statement was classic Hammond. Sandwiched between Tuesday's humiliation for Theresa May and the no-deal vote Wednesday night, he was never going to command any front pages. Watching, you could mistake him for the bank manager your branch doesn't have: sensible, dull, unremarkable.

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