Rishi Sunak’s second budget was never likely to be big on surprises. The UK chancellor is reportedly anxious to start dragging the public finances back towards sanity, but March 2021 is no time for hawks. Instead Sunak majored on extending support measures to help workers and businesses see out lockdown, with only a couple of tax rises and some sober words about sustainable finances for the future.

But in fact, says Steve Schifferes, this disguises some heftty government austerity taking place behind the scenes. To achieve a proper economic bounceback, he argues, the Conservatives must dispense with their more austere instincts and take a leaf out of the American playbook. We have also assembled our usual team of budget experts to offer their snap reactions on everything from enterprise to levelling up to housing.

Meanwhile, we look at what happens to people who get infected by two variants of the coronavirus at the same time, and bring you the latest insights into the cuttlefish, whose self-control is on a par with chimpanzees.

And if you have children at home this afternoon, sit them down in front of our Curious Kids live webinar on the solar system, in which space experts Monica Grady and Jacco van Loon will answer audience questions on our little part of the universe.

Steven Vass

Business + Economy Editor

Rolling the dice on a recovery. EPA

Budget 2021: strip away pandemic largesse and UK is banking on recovery with no extra public spending

Steve Schifferes, City, University of London

The plan is to achieve growth and level up without while sharply cutting the deficit.

kitchen / Alamy Stock Photo

Coronavirus: what happens when a person is simultaneously infected with two variants?

Maitreyi Shivkumar, De Montfort University

The real concern is if two variants infect the same cell and swap genetic material.

Courtesy of the Grass Foundation.

Clever cuttlefish show advanced self-control, like chimps and crows

Alexandra Schnell, University of Cambridge

A marine version of the Stanford marshmallow experiment helped show cuttlefish can delay gratification.

Business + Economy

  • Budget 2021: experts react

    Jonquil Lowe, The Open University; Alexander Tziamalis, Sheffield Hallam University; Andrew Cumbers, University of Glasgow; Despina Alexiadou, University of Strathclyde ; Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi, York St John University; Felix FitzRoy, University of St Andrews; Jonny Munby, Teesside University; Karl Schmedders, International Institute for Management Development (IMD); Lisa Scullion, University of Salford; Mark Williams, Queen Mary University of London; Michael Jacobs, University of Sheffield; Phil Tomlinson, University of Bath; Suzanne Withrington, Teesside University; W David McCausland, University of Aberdeen

    Chancellor Rishi Sunak has delivered his second pandemic budget for the Conservatives.

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