STEPHEN GLOVER: There's one 予算 omission I can't 許す - not a penny more for our 使い果たすd 軍隊s in such a dangerous world
Throughout yesterday’s Bud?get speech I was hoping ― no, I was praying ― that the （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 would ?produce a miraculous rabbit out of his hat.
For in 最近の days ?Jeremy 追跡（する）’s spin doctors ― and indeed Mr 追跡（する） ?himself on television over the 週末 ― have been doing their best to 鈍らせる 負かす／撃墜する 期待s.
It was repeated 広告 nauseam that the 予算 would be 慎重な and responsible. Any 税金 削減（する）s would be ?手段d and proportionate. You know the line.
My hope was that we were 存在 manipulated ― like a child who is told by his parents that there won’t be any big Christmas 現在のs this year because money is short, only to awake to find a gleaming new bicycle by the tree.
An hour or two before the 訴訟／進行s began, a rumour went around that there would be a 1p 削減（する） in 所得税 ― in 新規加入 to the 2p 削減（する） in 国家の 保険, about which the world and his wife already knew as a result of spin doctors telling the マスコミ everything.
But in the event no rabbit was produced, and there didn’t even seem to be much of a hat. Excepting a lot of 詳細（に述べる） that advertised the （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長’s mastery, and one or two 対策 I’ll come to, this was pretty much the 予算 that had been 漏れるd.
肯定的な 公式文書，認める: The （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 削減（する） 2p off 国家の 保険, having done the same thing last November, which is 明白に welcome
History will 配達する its 権威のある judgment on Mr 追跡（する）. His 評判 may ripen like a good Stilton, so that in 未来 years we’ll ?say things like: ‘Thank God for Jeremy. You’ve got to 手渡す it to him. He kept his 長，率いる, ?and look how it paid off!’
But at this moment I am depressed.
I know, I know. His いわゆる 会計の headroom had been 減ずるd, and he had いっそう少なく 範囲 for 減ずるing 税金 than was hoped. He also had the Office for 予算 責任／義務 (OBR) standing over him, watching his every move. Nor could he 危険 terrifying the markets, as Kwasi Kwarteng did with his 悪名高い 小型の-予算 in September 2022.
Nonetheless, I believe the （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 could have done more and been braver ― both for the good of the country and his party. He surely can’t have raised the Tories’ ?dismal prospects of winning the 来たるべき 選挙 by as much as a クォーク.
Let’s 認める the good things. Cutting 2p off 国家の 保険, having done the same thing last November, is 明白に welcome. Mr 追跡（する） was 権利 to 述べる 国家の 保険 as ‘a 刑罰，罰則 on work’. It has burgeoned as an 付加 所得税 耐えるing 負かす／撃墜する on 労働者s.
As a result of last autumn’s and yesterday’s 対策, 27 million 従業員s will receive an 普通の／平均（する） 税金 削減（する） of £900 a year, while two million self-雇うd will get a 税金 削減（する） 普通の／平均（する）ing £650. That’s not nothing.
And yet in a way it’s いっそう少なく than nothing since many, if not most, of those pocketing an extra £900 will lose more as a result of the 氷点の of 所得税 thresholds. によれば an 分析 in yesterday’s Money Mail, 世帯s are 支払う／賃金ing an extra £2,056 on 普通の／平均（する） in this 財政上の year, thanks to these frozen thresholds.
This probably explains why the 国家の 保険 削減（する） last November didn’t help the Tories’ 悲惨な 投票 ratings. I’d be surprised if yesterday’s 削減（する） has a better 影響. にもかかわらず 削減s in 国家の 保険, most people are 支払う／賃金ing more 税金 ― and will continue to?do so.
Mr 追跡（する） may point to his raising the High Income Child 利益 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 threshold, which will mean that nearly half a million families with children will save around £1,300 next year. 広大な／多数の／重要な for those who will, but the 広大な 大多数 won’t.
Nor is 減ずるing the 率 of 資本／首都 伸び（る）s 税金 on the sale of second homes from 28 to 24 per cent, though welcome, likely to change the political 天候.
The truth is that the 自然に 用心深い （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長, constrained as he is by the ever 悲観的な (and often wrong) OBR, shied away from making transformative 税金 削減（する）s. There was nothing on Stamp 義務. Nor was there any 削減 in ?相続物件 税金 ― the most hated 税金 in Britain ― which last autumn Mr 追跡（する） （機の）カム の近くに to 廃止するing, or at least 穏健なing.
He’d say there isn’t enough money to spare for such?削減（する）s when we are borrowing 広大な 量s. Indeed, some of the 税金 削減（する）s he 発表するd (we shouldn’t forget, 同様に as those I’ve already について言及するd, the 氷点の of alcohol and 燃料 義務s) were paid for by raising new 税金s.
主要な／長／主犯 の中で these were 廃止するing 税金 breaks for 非，不，無-doms and 延長するing windfall 税金s on oil companies ― both 労働 ideas. Some 保守的なs think it amusing that Mr 追跡（する） should be stealing Sir Keir Starmer’s 着せる／賦与するs. I reckon we should be 用心深い whenever a Tory （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 可決する・採択するs 社会主義者 政策s.
To return to Mr 追跡（する）’s 拒絶 to 申し込む／申し出 striking 税金 譲歩s. He has made a choice ― which would almost certainly be that of a Labo ur （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 ― to 増加する day-to-day public spending by 1 per cent in real 条件 every year. There was no talk of 診察するing health-関係のある 利益s, for which the number of claimants stands at 3.2 million ― an alarming 増加する of 25 per cent since the eve of the pandemic.
The OBR says that public 支出 in the 現在の 財政上の year is some?£1.2 一兆. Are we really to suppose that, within this unimaginably enormous sum of money, there isn’t a degree of wastage that could 基金 重要な 税金 削減（する）s? Mr 追跡（する） doesn’t appear to think so.
The （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 speaks the language of 税金 削減（する）s, rightly 説 in his 予算 speech ‘that countries with lower 税金s 一般に have higher growth’. And yet, when it comes to it, he 欠如（する）s the imagination or the courage to embrace lower 課税. So we trundle along the same old path ― with the highest 税金s and the highest public spending in 70 years.
I might almost 許す him for this, since I realise that in an 選挙 year it is hard even for the bravest 政治家，政治屋 to be 過激な. Everything that I wish Mr 追跡（する） had done on 税金s, the Tories should have done years ago.
But there’s one omission I can’t 許す. In the 中央 of a European war, with Britain more 脅すd than for a 世代, the （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 couldn’t find an extra penny for our 使い果たすd defences. A その上の £2.5 billion was conjured up for the NHS ― which will 消える without trace ―but nothing for our army, 海軍 or 空気／公表する 軍隊.
All he would say is that ‘defence spending [is] already more than 2 per cent of GDP . .. [and] will rise to?2.5 per cent as soon as 経済的な 条件s 許す’. But when will that be? かもしれない too late for this country.
Mr 追跡（する） is the son of an 海軍大将. He understands defence better than most 政治家，政治屋s. As a backbench MP in the summer of 2022, he 宣言するd that defence ?spending should rise to 3 per cent. The world is an even more dangerous place than it was then.
I don’t know what history will make of Mr 追跡（する）’s ?disinclination to 取り組む high 課税. Perhaps it will be 肉親，親類d to him. Almost certainly historians will agree that he did nothing to forestall a 労働 victory.
Of one thing I am 納得させるd. Mr 追跡（する）’s 拒絶 ― and Rishi Sunak’s ― to defend this country adequately will neither be ?forgotten nor forgiven.
