George Osborne is like most managers of the English national football team. Early exits from major tournaments are swiftly followed by a feeling that instead of putting up with habitually poor performances, we might consider investing in a bright future from the bottom up. In his final budget, George Osborne confirmed that he has no strategy for a Britain grounded in long-term success and strength.

Ever since his emergency budget in 2010, Osborne has been a man who favours political tactics over an economic end game. That has brought some success; the long-term economic plan soundbite – not much of a long-term anything, let alone an economic plan – has helped the Conservatives hold the ball on the economy. In the final budget of this government, he turned to the political equivalent of lumping the ball forwards to the player most likely to score and hoping they will put the ball in the goal, or the vote in the ballot box.

No long-term fix for the structural problems in Britain’s economy will be found in allowing pensioners to cash in annuities; fixing church roofs; abolishing annual tax returns; or thinking you can sustain a dwindling oil and gas industry with a tax cut. The Help to Buy ISA is a policy to push up house prices, not house builds. Even the Treasury concluded that the inheritance tax break, trailed earlier this week, would ‘most likely benefit high income and wealthier households’.

Handing incentives to Tory voters is a move by a chancellor blind to his own failings; even as he acknowledged today that ‘it is the lowest paid who suffer most when the economy fails’. And how they have suffered under his chancellorship – families are worse off by an average of £1,127 a year and wages are down by more than £1,600. From the Royal Mail to the East Coast Mainline, public assets have been sold off for short-term gain. That is the legacy of a short-term chancellor; a man whose only driving force from the moment he entered politics has been to win a Conservative majority.

But this budget should also be a warning for Labour. Ed Miliband’s focus on the cost of living crisis has subsided somewhat, but it was clever tactical manoeuvring on his part. He responded well today on building a strong foundation for a future for people who above all else need security – an £8 minimum wage, 25 hours of free childcare, and frozen energy bills.

But Miliband knows that he must avoid the temptation of short-term fixes when he is in power. From day one in the Treasury, Ed Balls must not just start to rebuild Britain’s economy ­– he must reshape it to succeed in the long-term. That means letting go of funding so that public services empower users, not the state or the private sector; investing in infrastructure and housing so public finances are not subsidising private landlords and construction firms; and backing the emerging forces of technological change.

It takes courage to reject tactics in favour of strategy in a political climate so volatile and destructive. It says a lot about his ideology that Osborne will be satisfied that this was a budget of tactics, not strategy.

But he should know that, just as in football, prioritising game-by-game tactics over long-term success will end up with the manager and his team being sacked. In seven weeks’ time Britain has a chance to do just that.

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Alex White is a member of Progress. He tweets @AlexWhiteUK

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