17 Mar SIMON PHETTER: Time to summon Hammond to the firing chamber
by Simon Phetter
Waking up to the news of the Chancellor embarrassing U-turn following his budget merely days before is the very reason I loath frontline politicians, there isn’t but a single bone of truth in them – my verdict here is quit simple, It’s now time to summon Philip Hammond to the firing chamber!
For those of you who are unaware The Chancellor’s political future was thrown into doubt earlier this week after he was forced to abandon a £2 billion hike in National Insurance (NI) just a week after making it a central feature of his first Budget.
WHATTT ?! Just what is going on here ?
I would pull in his whole team of aides and advisors and demand an abrupt explanation of why the U-turn had to be made why no other solution was forthcoming, I can’t believe 10-15 ‘politically charged’ workaholics couldn’t come up with a better performance than that, where is all their BRAINS then ?!
Despite being a Tory Mr Hammond demonstrated that he hadn’t paid a single bit of attention to the party’s manifesto for the past few years instead waiting for PM Theresa May to order the climbdown to head off a potential Tory revolt over the measure, which broke a manifesto pledge that NI rates would not be raised.
Mr Hammond in his infinite wisdom has now ruled out rises in NI for the self-employed before the 2020 election, saying he recognises the need to respect the ‘spirit’ of the manifesto.
There is now a £2billion hole in the governments books that needs filling, oh well they can always make cuts elsewhere right ……
