As Chancellor of the Exchequer, eloquent William Ewart Gladstone made budget speeches famous. Winston Churchill used to gesture a lot. Neville Chamberlain (now Prime Minister) usually had the amiable duty of announcing surpluses. To Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer for nearly two years, has come the unenviable task of "opening" the largest peacetime budgets in Britain's history. Last week, before a crowded House of Commons, he again appeared with the little worn red-leather dispatch box carried by Gladstone, opened it and ceremoniously drew out his sheafs of paper and,...
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