I have been reflecting on why I become increasingly irritated by each successive Budget statement, pre-Budget report and similar pronouncements. Maybe there are a few high-minded people who are able disinterestedly to consider them in the light of questions such as whether Gordon Brown has forsaken prudence or whether his forecasts are realistic. But this is to miss the flavour of such occasions. Both the chancellor's speeches and the media reporting of them are dominated by reports of hand-outs of various kinds. We may hear of a Budget for the old, for the young, for education, for science, for business, for the poor or, increasingly, for "Middle England". Although the detail may vary, the flavour is pretty much the same whichever party is in power and whoever is the chancellor.

Years ago the really austere could avoid this circus by reading just the official Budget documents at their leisure. But all hope of this is now gone. If you want to find out the exact changes proposed for, say, income tax rates or allowances, you have to wade through pages of propagandist prose and then search under headings such as "encouraging enterprise" or "building a fairer society".