This was a picky bits Budget with every dish a gherkin. Perhaps the best that can be said of it is what was not included: equalising capital gains with income tax, wealth taxes, yet more net zero nonsense. But what it did include was either inconsequential or unappetising. There was a £100 bung for poorer households, welcome but nit enough to offset inflation or the highest energy costs in the developed world. And there was an increase in the surcharge on banks, a capricious pickpocketing of our most valuable sector.

Britain’s greatest advantage is that we are regarded internationally as a country you can trust. But with governments whose first instinct, when an industry is doing well, is to expropriate it, we are throwing that away

Here are some of the best pieces from this week’s City AM opinion pages. Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Alys

The plans that John Healey announced today to squeeze more from banks will hit London hardest too. Our world-beating financial services sector won’t stay in the City and Canary Wharf for long if it becomes uncompetitive. Instead of letting London’s key business sectors thrive, Labour punishes success, and every time they do, it is Londoners who end up paying, says James Cleverly

This Budget was not a plan for growth or national renewal, it was a smothering pillow for the UK economy, writes Robert Jenrick.

Taxes introduced in response to temporary pressures have a habit of outlasting them. The Chancellor must keep his promise that the bank tax rise is only temporary, writes David Postings.

When we think about the capital’s best known ghost stories and most haunted locations, we probably all think of the same few suspects: the headless ghost of Anne Boleyn wandering the ramparts at the Tower of London, Jack the Ripper silently stalking the streets of Whitechapel in thick fog and the Highgate Vampire prowling through the cemetery in search of blood. But we rarely think about the haunted locations you can access with an Oyster card. What about all those ghostly goings on across the transport network? Surely the Undead of the Underground should have their stories told too? 

Well, rest assured that James Ford has got you covered. We have raided the archives – and sifted the seriously scary from the simply spooky – to determine the definitive list of the top three most haunted Tube stations. So, descend with us on an ethereal escalator to take a Tube ride into terror…

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