There is no budget next week. Instead, the chancellor will present the first spring statement. The theory is that this will be a very different beast from the traditional budget. And all the indications are that this one will, indeed, be different. Unless they are keeping their cards remarkably close to their chest, there appears to be none of the usual frantic pre-budget working up of policy options going on at the Treasury. We might actually get a chancellor resisting the temptation to faff and fiddle only a few months after his last bout of faffing and fiddling.

That is to be applauded. Until now, Britain has been pretty much unique in having two big fiscal events each year, and the continual change this has