The Chancellor is expected to raise taxes in his Budget speech on Wednesday, as he tries to tackle the UK's deficit while building a fund to ensure a smooth Brexit. But there will also be some spending, including a boost to Britain's digital economy. As well as up to £270m for research and development for artificial intelligence, electric cars and new pharmaceutical research, Philip Hammond will announce new funding to support university places in science, technology and engineering subjects. He will say his series of new measures are part of his strategy to increase innovation and productivity, in order to "Brexitproof" the UK in case the country encounters severe economic turbulence during and after the Brexit process. The measures follow the Chancellor's announcement on Sunday of a £500m investment in technical education in an attempt to bring "genuine parity of esteem" between academic and vocational qualifications. All of this, however, is pretty small beer when set against the enormous challenges around debt and deficit the Chancellor inherited, not from his Labour predecessors but from his immediate Conservative one, George Osborne.