Hammond's budget spending highlights May's weakness | Larry Elliott

Short-term spending aims to placate a public the PM thinks is sick of austerityWatching Philip Hammond deliver his third budget, it was hard to avoid thinking that an election must be in the offing. Chancellors normally show their mean streak when parliaments are young and squirrel away any available cash so that they can give money away as polling day approaches.Not this time, though. The chancellor was in the position of knowing that public borrowing this year is on course to be £12bn lo