He unveiled a package of measures for the next three years to help boost growth, including investment in infrastructure projects and tax breaks for start-up companies, and help to get young people into work, as well as sweeteners to help families meet household bills.
In keeping with the responsible persona that won over grandmas across the country during his Idol run, McCreery is currently finishing college at North Carolina State University and using his summer breaks to go on tour.
In his autobiography The Breaks Are Off, for example, published two years ago at the start of an England one-day international tour of India, he caused a stir with his appraisal of Kevin Pietersen's lack of aptitude for captaincy.
It's an entertaining film, in which Peston breaks out his impressive French, gleaned during a year off in Normandy and an admittedly pretentious teenage period watching nouvelle vague films ("When I was a kid I was very, very, very angry with my parents for not being French"), and whizzes through idyllic countryside in a 1960s Citroën DS – simply because he could, one suspects.
Many of the tax breaks involve projects connected to Norcross, the Democratic power broker, whose tacit support for Christie is widely viewed as vital to his 2009 victory over the then governor Jon Corzine.
The shares fell 2.8% to 74.25p – just above the 73.6p at which the government breaks even on its stake.
Next departure 3 December LARGE SHORT BREAK OPERATOR: HF HOLIDAYS 0845 470 8558, hfholidays.co.uk HF Holidays specialises in walking holidays but also offers a number of quirky leisure breaks to suit the most esoteric of hobbyists.
'Brittany Ferries (0871 244 1400; brittanyferries.co.uk) offers 14-night villa breaks on the northern coast of Spain from £1,740 providing easy access to both the countryside and the coast, including return crossings from Plymouth to Santander for two adults, one car and a two-year-old child with a four-berth cabin suite each way.
Each morning, Mirvish gave away "gifts" to the first few customers through the doors (to this day, a determined and shivering few line up at 6am on the corner of Bloor and Bathurst to claim their free tuning fork or toaster), as well as dollar bills to the poor and turkeys before Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"Most of those for the Thanksgiving supply have already been grown and are in good supply – and most have already been contracted for with wholesalers for the retail market".
Related: Landlords enjoy £14bn tax breaks as figures reveal buy-to-let expansion A report by mortgage lender Kent Reliance shows landlords made £67.2bn in capital gains, and £44.3bn from rent in the year to March 2015.
