At 6.00 am on Monday 17 October, the Treasury issued a press release announcing that the (new) Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, would making a statement “bringing forward measures from the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan”. The timing of the press release suggested that the Treasury was concerned it had not done enough the previous Friday to calm markets ahead of the end of Bank of England gilt purchase support.

The Chancellor’s statement was in two parts: firstly, a pre-emptive media statement in the morning, then an official statement to the House of Comm...