UK Budget 2009 - Comment & analysis
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Editorial: A Budget blast for Downing Street
The criticisms raised by the Treasury select committee are the conclusions of a group of MPs in which Labour backbenchers form a majority. The Treasury must spell out options for plugging the fiscal gap
John Kay: Labour’s affair with bankers is to blame for this sorry state
Little has changed. The UK government still sees financial services through the eyes of the financial services industry, writes John Kay
Editorial: Tax distraction
The government’s plan to tax the top earners is clearly intended to wrong-foot the Tory opposition. Instead, we need a serious, clear discussion about what broadly based tax increases should look like
Costs of social failure back in fashion
Labour has now gone forward to the past. The costs of social failure are back in vogue at the Treasury and steady hands have lost their grip. They are a fond, but distant, memory
Chris Giles: Repairing the deep hole in public finances will take years
To pay for the current borrowing spree, the chancellor has to rely on a public spending squeeze, cuts in capital expenditure, tax rises and the assumption of faster growth says Chris Giles
Philip Stephens: The next government’s straitjacket
In a curious way, the significance of Mr Darling’s grim litany of bad news lay more in its description of the economic and political straitjacket that awaits whoever takes the helm in Downing Street after the election, says Philip Stephens
Martin Wolf: On a wing and a prayer
Only Alistair Darling, most emollient of politicians, could manage to make this Budget seem boring. The economic figures make a horror story. However it could, of course, be even worse, writes Martin Wolf
Jonathan Guthrie: Beaten-up motor rolls off to the junkyard
Labour used to be a nice little runner. But there are too many miles on its clock and it has jolted over too many potholes, writes Jonathan Guthrie
Editorial: Too frail and vague to shore up credibility
The plan to raise the top rate of income tax exemplifies the tactical nature of the Budget – a mixture of populism and procrastination. But it could not disguise the grim state of Britain’s books
Paul J Davies: Sterling should recover after these knocks
There was a real sense of shock as Alistair Darling’s bleak Budget hit the pound hard writes Paul J Davies
