As of this weekend, the pre-Budget shadow boxing continues. Between the front benches at Westminster. And between the UK and Scottish governments.
As of next week, the conflict resumes in earnest, with the Chancellor’s Commons statement. She pre-empted that a fraction by confirming that she will alter fiscal rules in order to permit more productive capital investment.
Of course, in itself, this will not increase wealth. Rather, it will generate additional state borrowing, already high according to new figures. But Rachel Reeves hopes it will stimulate the UK’s sluggish economy.
The Tories say it’s a mistaken move which might spook markets. Labour says primly that they should know. Scotland’s First Minister had urged just such a move – and now hopes for further flexibility.
He may be disappointed. This is still looking like a tough budget, with spending cuts and tax hikes. Justified, says the Chancellor, by the predicament she inherited.
Never forget, however, that for Scotland, the UK Budget is still round one. Crucial and defining – but round one. The decisions on Scottish expenditure and income tax will come later, in the Holyrood financial package.
Alongside that second round is another bout, another battle. The necessity for Scottish ministers to find chums in the Scottish Parliament, sufficiently amicable to allow that budget to carry, despite the SNP minority.
However, let us start with the UK Budget. We might perhaps note that the rhetoric has warmed somewhat from the earlier declaration by the Prime Minister that things would get worse before they got better.
So, we are now directed to gaze upon sunlit uplands. But still relatively distant. Still in........