Alistair Darling and the Pre Budget Report proved to be a disappointing combination, says Peter Vaines
I was asked to write a light-hearted piece about the Pre Budget Report—but as we are dealing with Mr Brown, Mr Darling and a global catastrophe, light hearts are rather hard to come by. Faint hearts perhaps—but please not from the chancellor.
We all thought this would be a Budget with a difference—like he was going to reduce taxes. Except that this time his proposals have to work. No more sound bites or playing to the gallery…this is really serious. The economy needs TLC like never before. And Mr Darling Brown (I never can tell which) is the man to do it.
Dream on. Could anybody with any appreciation of the situation, or the mood, have said with a straight face that it’s OK because everything is going to be back in balance by the year 2016!
However, the chancellor did announce some tax cuts, although that is perhaps an odd description because most of the changes
