Ryan Bourne: Don’t fret about this debt – at least not yet. Big tax rises would choke economic recovery.

If it proves a temporary blowout rather than permanent, accumulated debt levels being modestly higher looks manageable.

The New Normal will be Very Abnormal Indeed. Here are 15 sets of questions about it.

How prepared are we for strict social distancing for the forseeable future, compulsory masks, closed leisure facilities – and a semi-functioning economy?

Caroline Elsom: We calculate the astronomical cost of the virus as double the sum spent each year on healthcare

As in 2008, the line between survival and disaster will rest on the bond markets’ trust in the British Government and on the reputation of the Bank of England.

Neil O’Brien: Salvaging the economy. Could we just live with more borrowing for a bit? Maybe, maybe not.

Hopefully it will be crisis averted, and we’ll have a bit more time to fix the hole. But sooner or later, difficult choices on tax and spending are coming.

The Government should stand behind loans to small businesses in full

Ministers can carry on trying, through the British Business Bank or directly, to push on this Gordian Knot – or slice through it.

Robert Halfon: Britain is now a moderate social democratic state

Whether moderate right Conservative, or moderate left, austerity is dead, and this new age will be with us for a long time to come.

John Redwood: Why I, as a strong supporter of the market economy, back the Government’s emergency economic measures

The reason we will get away with it again, as we did in the banking crash, is that there is so much deflation around, inflation is not a problem.

Budget 1) This was less a Conservative Budget than “the People’s Budget”. From a Vote Leave Government – not the usual Tory one.

It may be necessary, given the Coronavirus, and could even work. But Britain has a long, long record of state spending failing to turbo-charge growth.

Budget 2) John Glen: The challenges we face of the virus and of weak productivity can’t be met by the repetition of small state mantras

The Chancellor’s measures leave us well prepared to tackle its short-term challenges as well as helping to shape the long-term trajectory of the economy.

Tim Pitt: Sunak should walk in Howe’s footsteps and make the Conservative case for tax rises

We are in danger of losing sight of the simple truth which has been a favoured phrase of Tory politicians through the ages: borrowing today is simply taxation deferred.

John Redwood: In this post-Brexit budget, Sunak should spend more, cut taxes and raise borrowing

In the first piece of a mini-series, our guest author also argues the Government should look again at IR35, and make it more worthwhile to work.

Ryan Bourne: The real Budget question on borrowing is not “could we?” but “should we?”

My answer would be “maybe, provided the spending or tax cuts significantly improved our growth potential.”

Now is the time to emphasise the massive tax rises which Labour’s plans would inflict on the nation

Today’s pledge of a swift Tory National Insurance cut is welcome, but more importantly it sets the stage for an attack on Corbyn’s tax grab.

Daniel Hannan: £1 million? £1 billion? £1 trillion? McDonnell is relying on you not knowing the difference.

Labour is banking on our innumeracy. I don’t say that they are taking us for fools. Plenty of clever and educated people can’t process numbers on that scale.

Sajid Javid: “The direct cost of Corbyn is confirmed: £1.2 trillion of extra spending over the next five years.”

And, the Chancellor notes in his Bolton speech, that excludes 59 Labour policies “which don’t have enough detail for us to cost fairly”.