When No 10 moves in to No 11, the result can be chaos

If Javid's departure means austerity is over, then thank heavens. But Tories also have a history of overheating the economy

I have found over the years that the general public shows little interest in the chancellor of the exchequer except on budget day. Often people have no idea who he is (so far there has never been a she). In the past week or so, however, I have been struck by the number of casual acquaintances who have commented on the farce of the recent sacking of chancellor Sajid Javid before he even had the chance to present a budget.

What this bizarre episode has achieved is to focus people's attention on no fewer than three revealing aspects of the character and behaviour of the man we have for the time being to call our prime minister. The first is his rampantly duplicitous nature: Javid had been assured repeatedly that his position was safe.

Once again we have a prime minister who wishes to override Treasury caution and 'go for growth'