I’ve finally realised who Jeremy Hunt reminds me of – Arsène Wenger. During his later, less successful period at the club, the then-Arsenal manager would often comment after matches how his team dropped a little bit physically in the second half but showed top mental strength.
The chancellor has his own version of this motif. The economic data comes in, and no matter how disappointing, Hunt informs Geoff Shreeves (or perhaps Faisal Islam) that the outlook is better than expected and points out the UK is set to avoid recession. Both are technically true, but better than expected is different from good.
