Meanwhile elsewhere..........
While the Chancellor will be trying to get headlines today by cutting some taxes for workers while increasing others much more and helping business with investment allowances, something else is going on.
The Home Office is hard at work trying to reduce immigration, by making it more difficult to hire foreign workers. It wants to hike the minimum wage immigrants need to earn to get a visa, and reduce the number of dependents they can bring.
When British industry and especially the care system is screaming for more workers and more visas, this is economic madness. It will directly hamper growth when economic growth is desperately needed, not least by the Chancellor if he is to balance the books.
But then this is just what to expect from an incoherent government torn by conflicting internal populist pressures.
The national interest hasn’t had much of a look in for years.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media