Rishi Sunak’s budget speech was unusually short on quips but sought inspiration from Tennyson’s Ulysses as he attempted to sum up the UK’s determination to face the future. “That which we are, we are,” the chancellor said as he reached the end of a statement which promised tax rises and continued emergency spending during the coronavirus pandemic. The quote was taken from the acclaimed last lines of the 19th-century poem which has been used by many to summon communal strength during times of adversity: “… that which we are, we are / One equal temper of heroic hearts, / Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will / To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
The lines are often associated with one of Britain’s heroic failures: they are inscribed on a cross in Antarctica to commemorate the explorer Robert Scott and his party, who died on their return trek from the south pole in 1912. Last year’s statement, before the horrors of the pandemic were fully appreciated, established Sunak’s reputation as a fluent orator before a crammed House of Commons. He had been in the post for a matter of weeks after Sajid Javid’s unexpected resignation. Following in the footsteps of many chancellors, he delivered jokes at the expense of his then Labour shadow. “There will be no VAT on historical fiction by Hilary Mantel, manuals or textbooks like Gray’s Anatomy or, indeed, works of fantasy … like John McDonnell’s Economics for the Many,” he said to backbench laughter. Wednesday’s statement, also delivered with élan and control, was to a socially distanced and masked parliament. It followed a year that saw more than 120,000 deaths from Covid-19 and with the UK facing a deeper recession than many similar economies. Under these circumstances, Sunak reached for steely resolve and what he described as an attempt to level with the public. He repeated the word “honest” six times. “The fundamentals of our character as a people have not changed. Still determined. Still generous. Still fair. That’s what got us through the last year; it’s what will guide us through the next decade and beyond,” he told MPs. More serious than the absence of jokes, critics said, was the lack of extra money for social care, childcare or public sector workers, or even a passing mention of Brexit.