IT is right that the Chancellor Rishi Sunak has, after several days of being missing in America, announced a support package for businesses hit by a drop-off of orders caused by the circulation of the new omicron variant. It would have been a waste of all the billions that the Government has spent supporting businesses since the pandemic struck in March 2020 if, having got our economy to this point in surprisingly resilient fettle, Mr Sunak had failed to act.

However, £6,000 is not a lot to hospitality businesses which have lost tens of thousands at their most profitable time of the year. If we are going to continue to teeter on the brink of another lockdown into the New Year, the Treasury's support is going to have to be reviewed and increased.

Secondly, it is going to be vital that the grants are properly policed. There are stories of earlier grants being fraudulently obtained so the Treasury needs to ensure effective pay-outs.

And thirdly, while it is important businesses are kept going, there is no kind of a furlough scheme to help workers - often the lowest paid - who will suddenly find they have no shifts in pubs and hotels, and nothing to live on.

But, equally, who would be a politician? Could Mr Sunak ever have put together a package so generous that it would be welcomed by everyone? And what would that package have done to the country's finances?