Analysis: Safe pair of hands delivers Budget for stability
After Prudence Darling promises "stability"
Wednesday, 12, Mar 2008 12:00
The immediate message to jump out of Alistair Darling's first Budget is that of "stability" – no doubt because the chancellor claimed to be delivering it no less than 23 times.
The chancellor was unable to ignore warnings of an impending recession but ploughed the government line that the UK is well prepared to weather a global economic downturn.
In contrast to Gordon Brown's willingness to take credit for the economic growth achieved under his tenure at the Treasury, Mr Darling's speech repeatedly attempted to link any economic unease to global factors beyond the government's control.
As with Mr Brown's turbulent first few months tackling foot and mouth, terrorism and floods, the test for the government is instead presented as how they respond to external events.
Given Mr Brown's reputation as a control freak, Mr Darling had been under pressure to make his own mark with today's Budget and contradict accusations that he is a "puppet chancellor".
But at 51 minutes, it was the shortest Budget speech of recent times and did little to dispel Mr Darling's quiet man image.
In contrast to Mr Brown's tendency to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the Budget box at the last minute, Mr Darling delivered few surprises.
There was little included in the Budget that hinted at any power struggles between the chancellor and his predecessor, in contrast to the 11 Budgets delivered under the Brown-Blair regime.
Mr Darling confirmed the prime minister's own commitment to continuing Blairite reforms of public services, including additional money for city academies.
He also promised the financial backing to meet Mr Brown and Mr Blair's 1998 pledge to abolish child poverty by 2020.
The initiatives to tackle child poverty were less hyped in advance than the Treasury's claim to be delivering the greenest Budget yet.
In part this may have been to deflect attention from the relative lack of focus on middle-earning families, with Labour keen to appeal to the so-called Coronation Street class of voters.
As opposition politicians were quick to point, today's Budget has largely ignored the middle class, with a focus on business and the poorest.
But whether Mr Darling has even announced a Budget that will benefit those most in need remains very much in doubt. The claimed push to tackle child poverty falls short of the £1 billion announced by Mr Brown in his final Budget – and far short of the £4 billion anti-poverty campaigners argue is necessary to halve child poverty by 2010.
Mr Darling's most obvious appeal to middle England was a threat to tax plastic bags – but only if supermarkets fail to achieve a voluntary reduction.
He also confirmed a hefty increase to so-called "sin taxes," including the first increase in duty on spirits for more than decade.
As befits the prime minister's famed moral compass, tax hikes were portrayed as a moral issue, with alcohol duties designed to tackle binge drinking and green taxes a penance on the polluting.