Welcome to kite-flying season. With exactly two months to go until Andy Burnham and John Healey’s first Budget, we’re beginning to get a shape of what’s likely to happen. The headline is that they want this to be a nothing fiscal event. Headroom will be maintained, minor cost of living interventions will be funded and there’ll be a load of froth about plans for fiscal devolution.Healey, for his part, is determined to avoid the leaks that plagued Rachel Reeves’s last Budget. The Treasury has apparently rolled out some high-tech computer system to stop leaks happening. But they’re hard to avoid. I don’t think I’ll be kicked out of the magic circle for telling you nobody sends you a leak by forwarding it from their civil service email. If leaks come from HMT, they are either deliberately put out by the Chancellor’s special advisers or by people mouthing off in the pub or from photographing documents. ‘Stakeholders’ and interest groups are consulted on policies and measures too and become very leak prone.But even despite Healey’s crackdown, it seems Burnham is still keen to fly some........

© The Spectator