Soaring living costs, shortages on supermarket shelves and a health emergency that was supposed to be all over bar the shouting.
Rarely in peacetime has a British chancellor faced a more perilous economic backdrop for a budget, as the Covid recovery runs out of steam amid rising pressure on families and the worst supply chain meltdown since the 1970s.
After a far more difficult start to autumn than expected, this Wednesday hardly appears the ideal moment for setting out a long-term vision with the first three-year spending review since 2015, and as global attention turns to the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.
But for Rishi Sunak, Wednesday’s tax and spending set piece stands as a golden opportunity to assert his status as the “whatever it
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