Budget 2016: Osborne rolls with the blows, but the politics tramples good economics

John Van Reenen, Director of the Centre for Economic Performance, gives his reaction to the 2016 Budget. The austerity approach continues, despite it having little economic sense. Fuel duty is frozen as a sweetener to his backbenchers. And in terms of the future, Osborne may have spent time outlining the global uncertainties on the long-term economic horizon, but it’s the closer possibility of Brexit which has the potential to be the biggest disruption to his plans.