“Nat has herpes” is scrawled all over East London. Should I feel sorry for Nat, or does this have another meaning?

You have got to wonder about the folks who take their dogs to shit outside the school gates.

In sum, seems like a budget to keep self-interested Tories onside. I guess it presages a ratcheting up of culture war cobblers to gin up Tory supporters who vote against their own interests.

Hmm. Seems like the Tories have given back around 2/3 of the recent corporation tax hike in tax reliefs. Corporations already don’t know what to do productively with the money. Share buybacks FTW!

Imagine if the Tories had given wealthy savers the same pension tax breaks, but required the money be invested in net zero and social housing.

You need a lot of patience to drive down Morning Lane in the, uh, morning. I walk - and there isn’t much patience on show.

Traffic queued on Morning lane in Hackney in the morning.

Fiscal rules

Your budget day reminder that outside of political discourse there’s no such thing as fiscal rules. The term was introduced into the UK by Gordon Brown to counter the (mistaken) premise that Labour is bad at economic management. As political tools, fiscal rules are designed to support political outcomes. If a politician tells you a fiscal rule leaves them no option but to shaft their citizens, rest assured that citizen-shafting is their political objective.

The unimaginative build-it-by-numbers regeneration strategy is to throw up high-rises around public transport hubs, which leaves tracts of East London without a horizon, little sunlight, and very windy streets.

A view along Tant Avenue, Canning Town, to the Hallsville Quarter development that obscures the horizon

This is Canary Wharf Station on the Elizabeth Line. It has no direct connection with Canary Wharf Station on the DLR, and neither of those stations have a connection with Canary Wharf Station on the Jubilee Line. One location: three stations.

A view of Crossrail Place and Canary Wharf station on the Elizabeth Line

Against the grey afternoon sky the silver leaves sprouting from the tree growing out of the taxi aren’t so shiny.

Taxi on the roof of a diner with a silver-leafed tree growing out of it