Jovial Jeremy Hunt says he is going for ‘growth’, but remains hobbled by Brexit

Jeremy Hunt's almost carefree approach to the autumn statement bespoke a chancellor, and a party, that has largely ceased to care

What impressed me most about the delivery of last week's autumn statement was the good-humoured - almost jovial - manner in which our fourth chancellor in three years unveiled a seemingly endless list of measures supposed to promote growth".

In most cases they were nothing of the sort. But Jeremy Hunt was so relaxed that one wonders if he believed a word of it. I had the wicked thought that as his party is assumed by most observers - not least its own members - to be approaching the electoral scaffold, the prevailing mood was one of lie back and think of the election after next". Meanwhile, they can enjoy the spectacle of a Labour party struggling to carry out its traditional role of trying to sort out the mess it is likely to inherit.