STRIP away the rhetoric, and Chancellor Rishi Sunak's spring statement will have done nothing to protect huge swathes of Northern Ireland families from a further downward spiral into poverty.
Raising the threshold at which people pay national insurance, trimming 5p off a litre of petrol, and dangling the carrot of a penny in the pound reduction in income tax in two years' time simply won't cut it this morning for those facing sleepless nights, worrying about how to make ends meet.
Granted, the chancellor had to deliver his statement against the difficult and challenging backdrop of inflation increasing to 6.2 per cent in February. That was a 30-year high (there's much worst to come, too) . . . and don't we know it.
His fuel duty cut of 5p a litre was a common sense move, but doesn't even go as far as that of the Republic's treasury earlier this month, where petrol was reduced by 20 cents a litre and diesel by 15 cents.
Since the start of this year, the average cost of a tank of petrol in Banbridge or Beragh has soared to around £90, rocking the finances of families and particularly young drivers, pensioners and lower-income workers who need to commute each day. Half of what we pay at the pumps still goes to the Treasury.
Interestingly, those who queued at some filling stations after 6pm last night will have been shocked when the price boards didn't move.
That's because the cut only becomes effective on fuel leaving storage bonds from 6pm, and many retailers were pumping out fuel which they'd paid for at the old levy - a reminder, if we needed one, that prices ALWAYS take longer to come down that to rise.
The chancellor also insisted that close to 30 million UK workers will have their taxes cut (typically by £330 a year) through the rise in the threshold at which national insurance (NI) is paid, while 2.2 million will be taken out of paying contributions altogether.
It was previously announced that a UK-wide 1.25 per cent health and social care levy, based on NI contributions, will be introduced from April 6, ring-fenced for health and social care.
The rate at which employees pay national insurance will now rise from £9,880 a year to £12,570. But it's from July, so you won't see it in your April or May pay packets.
The Tories constantly tell us how they "consistently deliver for business", and over these last two pandemic years, in fairness, they've done well.
But this statement was meant to be different. It was supposed to be for the individual and the family. And frankly he's done little to avert misery for millions of unwaged and low-waged.
My best analogy from yesterday? It's like a kettle is boiling on families, yet Mr Sunak has dropped in an ice cube and walks away thinking he's done a clever job . . .
