well, the budget today is a kind of casino royale. it was in a new, plainer style, fewer gimmicks.with the plainer style, the substance, too, was straightforward. his mantra was, stick to the plans. some have argued that lower borrowing makes a case for more unfunded spending. i disagree. britain has a debt of nearly £1.7 trillion. almost £62,000 for every household in the country. so the only responsible course of action, mr deputy speaker, is to continue with our plan. so no big change of direction. this is not the time. interestingly, while george osborne's last budget had 145 pages and 77 different measures in it, philip hammond's had 64 pages in only 28 measures. some would say it is a non— budget, bar a controversy that will talk about shortly. but do not underestimate the quiet man. this was big, even bigly, in two respects. this was really a moment to celebrate. because, borrowing is officially more or less back in the range of normality for the first time since 2009. yes, we're back at levels of borrowing gordon brown was comfortable with. and, just in time for brexit, we