Johnson and Hunt’s magic money tree is enough to drive any sensible person into the arms of Jeremy Corbyn

Suddenly, Scary Jez isn’t so scary after all, what with no-deal Brexit, tax cuts and multi-billion pound pet spending projects the prospective new prime ministers have together promised

Another day, another £6bn of taxpayers’ money on Jeremy Hunt’s pile. We’re told it’ll be showered on fishermen, farmers and small businessmen in the event of a no-deal Brexit favoured by only a minority of Britons but a majority of the 160,000 or so troglodytes who get to choose our next prime minister for us. Democracy this ain’t.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) last week said Hunt’s pledges added up to £65bn and counting. Make that £71bn, I guess. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson’s team has been promising to end the public sector pay freeze in addition to his tax cuts for the wealthy, a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland (is that still a thing?) and a free subscription to The Daily Telegraph for every school so the nation’s youth can benefit from the wisdom contained in his column.

OK, I made that one up. But you get the drift. Both candidates have started the week with more promises of money for their pet projects and favoured clients. They’ve been spraying the stuff around like a jumbo jet-sized crop duster.

All of this begs a question: if there’s that much in the kitty why have we just endured 10 years of austerity? Seriously.

Yes, yes I know. Both Hunt and Johnson are lying about the magic faraway money tree that’s suddenly sprouted in Whitehall. Either that or whoever they install as chancellor (it surely won’t be Philip Hammond) is going to start work with the mother of all headaches.

The issue it all raises, however, is the messaging.

The Conservatives came to power a decade or so ago partly by warning that if someone didn’t do something about our escalating national debt post the financial crisis then the whole country would be knocking on the door of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in search of a bailout within a few short months.

Enough voters saw the scary looking graphs and the projections and bought it, and for the last decade, the mantra has been sound public finances über alles, despite the fact that quite a few respectable economists have been saying that the policy has done more harm than good.

To that end, we’ve seen councils going bust (hello Northamptonshire), a stab-fest on the streets of London thanks to dwindling police numbers (seriously, this isn’t the fault of Sadiq Kahn), crumbling infrastructure, a rapidly developing social care crisis.

Disabled people have died thanks to the way the benefits budget has been hacked at and a growing number of people have found themselves relying on food banks as a result of the cruel implementation of universal credit.

Even the “protected” departments (education, health) have been showing signs of serious strain.

When these issues have been raised the response has always been that it’s tough but necessary and it’ll be worth it in the end. Trust in the Tory party’s record of economic competence and Britain will emerge fitter and stronger from getting the nation’s books in order.

Given what the two prospective Tory leaders have been saying of late, Britain is entitled to wonder why on earth it went through it all. And yet still they try to make out like Jeremy Corbyn would be worse. Tory MPs keep banging on about the “risk” of a Labour government led by scary spendthrift Jeremy Corbyn and his Marxist bff, shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

Thing is, as I’ve written before, despite the way they were characterised, their plans to turn the taps on were a lot more modest than the press they were given would have you believe in the run-up to the last general election. They were also mostly costed, courtesy of tax rises, mostly targeted at big business and the wealthy.

Sure, there were and are grounds for scepticism about them. But these days McDonnell looks like a model of fiscal rectitude. The IFS still warned of a £10bn hole in his plans, but that’s a drop in either Hunt’s or Johnson’s ocean. The way those two are carrying on it’ll soon represent little more than a rounding error.

Suddenly, Scary Jez isn’t so scary after all, what with a no-deal Brexit, tax cuts and multi-billion pound pet spending projects the prospective new prime ministers have together promised.

They’ve abandoned 10 years of Tory party rhetoric in favour of spend, spend, spend, without any irksome tax either. They seem to believe that the wider electorate won’t notice the flaws in what they’ve been saying. Thing is, the wider electorate isn’t as dim as they seem to believe (perhaps justifiably, I know not) the Tory leadership electorate is.

It’s often said that Brexit has doomed the Conservative Party. Abandoning its chief, perhaps the only selling point as the economically competent “Daddy Party” that will take the tough but necessary decisions for UK plc, is only going to hasten that process.

That may count as something of a consolation when the current madness that has gripped the country has come to an end. Meanwhile, the people working at the IMF would be advised to keep their mobile phones charged. A Tory-led Britain could soon be calling.