Once upon a time, budget proposals were the greatest secret In Whitehall. 

Chancellors of the Exchequer disappeared into purdah weeks before the annual budget speech. Revealing proposed fiscal changes was a resigning matter. In 1947, Labour’s Chancellor Hugh Dalton fell on his sword for spilling the beans to a lobby correspondent just before his budget speech. (Which at least spared him from the infamy of devaluing the pound two years later.)

Today, all these conventions have gone out of the window. Government spinmeisters trail budget decisions weeks before the event. Or fly kites that never take flight, to make the real budget seem more voter-friendly.

It’s probably inevitable. But it makes us all very cynical. Hugh Dalton must be turning in his grave, wondering how honour could have been devalued so swiftly after he made his sacrifice.