Good morning. It's three minutes after ten. You're listening to James O'Brien on LBC.

Taxes are going up in the budget. That much is clear. The point of the speech today, because apparently

some people haven't worked this out, is essentially to prepare the markets for that imminent shock,

or even to render it not as shocking as it would otherwise be.

One word I've seen used by people who know what they're talking about is pitch rolling.

She is breaking a manifesto pledge, but she's not going to actually shatter the glass in the course of a speech three weeks before D-Day.

And what I found most extraordinary was two things. I don't know

on a scale of one to ten. This might be a question that I ask you. How stupid not to have done this a year

ago. How spectacularly stupid to have waited a year. In fact, more. Would that be an interesting finding? Why didn't they do

this in opposition? To which, I suppose the most obvious response is, excuse me, they won a massive

majority. How can you possibly be picking holes in what they did in opposition? To which I suppose

I'd respond by saying, well, opposition should be preparation for

government. But why didn't you do this in opposition? Why have you allowed this nonsense to get

halfway around the world before the truth has got its trousers on? Do you know, I heard people today

this morning who told you to vote for Brexit, who explained to you that it would be a brilliant

idea, that Boris Johnson would be a brilliant Prime Minister, that austerity was a necessary corrective because the banking crisis

caused by bankers had nothing to do with bankers and the prices must therefore be paid by, you know,

teaching assistants in your child's school, the closure of libraries and youth clubs, and

a massive reduction in the provision of things

like leaf sweepers for a local council. The people who told you, Brexit would be brilliant,

Boris Johnson would be brilliant, Liz Trust would be brilliant, austerity was brilliant,

are now saying, how dare she mention Brexit? Actually, let's pause for a moment, just to reflect on

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