Will John Healey’s ‘breathing space’ budget deliver what Britain needs? Our panel responds | Panel

First, he did no harm. Then he scattered sprinkles of feel-goods. He told the truth about the state we’re in, deep in an extra £14bn of expensive debt, and, though he put it politely, at the mercy of the monster in the White House’s whims on Iran and tariffs.

The losers were popular targets: the banks and gambling companies. But plainly bank threats to decamp partly paid off. Their shares leapt up on the news that their surcharge would rise to only 6%, not its original 8% before Tory reductions. They expected to pay more, and indeed they should. Gambling company shares jumped up too, with Rank up more than 10% on the day when the companies were only hit with five percentage points more tax on high-stakes machines, a…