Theatrics used to unveil the budget do not hide the impact of taxation and timing, says Peter Vaines
Gordon Brown started his Budget speech in cracking form with some payback comments directed at former colleagues who had been sniping at him earlier in the week. And he ended it with a moment of pure theatre. He got to that part of the Budget where he commends it to the House but just before those words were uttered he said something like “oh sorry I forgot to mention, I’m reducing income tax by 2p to 20%”, and sat down.
Poor Mr Cameron. He had already written his reply, assuming he could amend it slightly as the Chancellor ploughed through the boring bits, but this last line gave him only 15 seconds to take it in. These theatricals may have been appropriate for Budget Day, but did not distract the analysts who gave the Budget a serious thumbs down.
It is an extraordinary feature that most changes do not relate to the forthcoming year.
