‘Rachel Reeves is tinkering at the edges, this is a country is crisis,’ says Jacob Rees-Mogg

Legend has it that during the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, which I remember quite well, Emperor Nero fiddled or played the cithara, dressed in theatrical garb as he declaimed a poem on the fall of Troy.

It doesn’t seem entirely clear whether he actually played and sang as the capital of the greatest empire the world had known at that point burned, or whether he merely watched the fire, dreaming of the new city he hoped to build. But what was clear was that Nero was worrying about the wrong things while his capital burned.

Why do I mention this, you may wonder? Well, it seems there’s something of a comparison between Emperor Nero and Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Tomorrow, she will announce her emergency budget, coyly named a “spring statement,” despite promising only one budget a year in total.

Along with welfare and foreign aid savings, she will attempt to find another £10billion to try and reassure the markets after the Government borrowed significantly more money than forecast.

But it is tinkering at the edges, which amounts to fiddling while Rome burns, because, sadly, this is a country in crisis.

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First, the growth crisis. According to the Growth Commission, since June of last year, GDP has decreased by 0.1 per cent, and over the same period, growth in GDP per capita has actually been negative.

The Government’s brutal tax rises, particularly on employer National Insurance, have devastated the economy, and this will only get worse with the passing of its employment rights bill.

The self-proclaimed Government of growth has already failed on its biggest promise.

Then there’s the fiscal crisis. In February, the Government had its fourth-highest borrowing since records began in 1993— £4.1billion higher than anticipated debt servicing costs.

That’s interest payments and other third-highest costs, behind welfare and health.

Then, there is the risk of trade if the Government continues to try to align itself with the European Union.

Risking sanctions from the Trump administration and reducing the possibility of a trade deal with the US, while the state the country needs is an overhaul of public spending, tax cuts, and the slashing of regulations.

But instead, the Chancellor is playing the cithara.

Either way, I can only hope that she paid for that fiddle or cithara herself. And if it was a freebie, she declared it to Parliament, as ever.