Budget Week Part III: Brief Analysis.

So, the Budget's been announced. Bit difficult to guess how it's gone down at the moment: ultimately we'll find out at the election. But yes, Darling seems to have done a relatively decent job.

Because let's face it, when your main complaint about the budget comes down to a 10% increase in the price of cider, you really are clutching at straws. Especially as the Conservatives say they were also planning to introduce that.

"This is CIDER!!!"

Basically, I think what Darling has done is remarkably canny. By taking a few Conservative policies - namely stamp duty, creating more university places and raising the duties on cider - he's shown Labour and the Conservatives as being relatively similar. This might not seem like a wise move, until you realise that a lot of undecided voters will therefore see the Lib Dems as being the only viable alternative. So a lot of people thinking about voting Tory might now decide to switch to Lib Dem instead: a move that would be far more beneficial for Labour than it would for the Conservatives, who appear to have indicated that they would not want to work with the Lib Dems, and vice versa.

Cameron: "Why are we laughing?" - Osborne: "I have no idea"

The speech itself has been seen by some as boring, and certainly Darling is not Mr Charisma. But he wasn't trying to be: he was trying to be Mr Sensible, and whilst this Budget may not necessarily be a roaring success, it was far from a disaster. Cuts were made in places, an effort is being made to reduce borrowing, but the desire to keep a recovery going remains from Darling. Indeed, you wonder if he might have done a better job than Brown had he been given the job in 1997. But as I've already said, the chances of him surviving post-election are about as likely as him resembling Sam the Eagle.

"I've been meaning to fix that shelf/economy."

Okay, bad example.

More reaction tomorrow!

Thanks for reading, Chris