Account ability
Basic bank accounts are a good idea, but they are already widely available. The government and the banking industry deserve credit for this
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UK Budget 2010
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Retreat from Darling vow to business
Alistair Darling’s Budget pledge substantially to increase public-sector contracts given to small businesses has no guarantee of being met, the government has admitted
Labour spending cuts deepest since 50s
Actions to be ‘tougher’ than Thatcher’s
Budget efficiency savings not enough, says IFS
Half proposed proceeds in ‘protected’ ministries
Football tax break kicks up a storm
Treasury faces wave of demands
Pensions set-up costs to soar, says Treasury
Figure is almost three times initial estimates
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 | Darling fails to deliver, says Cable Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokesman, tells Daniel Garrahan that Alistair Darling failed to deliver honesty or specifics on public spending |
 | Hopes sensible budget is a vote winner FT political editor George Parker looks at whether the broad aims of the budget were met, whether the speech heralded payback time for the banks, and the difference between Labour and Conservative policy on deficit reduction |
 | Bad news continues for high earners FT personal finance editor Matthew Vincent sees a budget that further draws the dividing lines between high earners and the rest of the population |
 | Voters left in dark on spending cuts Public policy editor Nicholas Timmins agrees with the chancellor that deficit cuts will shape society for decades to come, but says there is no detail on where the axe will fall |
 | Fills potholes not deficit black holes Economics editor Chris Giles says the budget adds little extra credibility about the deficit reduction plan and how spending cuts will fall. He warns that the Treasury’s growth predictions are seen by most as unrealistic |
COMMENT & ANALYSIS
Mistakes that drained the fiscal reservoir
The government is offering a delayed return to fiscal stability, with details still to be filled in. Is that good enough? No, argues Martin Wolf
UK Budget
A poltical budget delivered two months before a general election was always going to leave the pain to be faced another year
Fine, if you forget the public finances
The state of public finances remains dire. Familiarity with these colossal numbers should not breed content
Love affair with the rich is well and truly dead
‘Non doms’ will not storm the Tower of London, but they can vote with their feet, as can rich British residents. What matters in the end, though, is the UK’s relative position vis-a-vis other tax jurisdictions, writes John Plender
Darling’s faith-based politics
The big fact about Britain’s predicament has not changed: sooner or later an unsustainable government deficit will demand deep spending cuts and more tax rises, says Philip Stephens
The creditworthy pay for banker-bashing
The only question is how long financiers will remain in the stocks to divert attention from politicians’ own failures, writes Jonathan Guthrie
Sterling got lucky, but it is still set for a fall
The muted market reaction to the speech was still more negative than the chancellor might have hoped, writes John Authers
Silence on spending is anything but golden
The electorate will shortly be asked to choose between the major parties at the general election knowing that big cuts are coming but having no idea of what they will be, writes Nicholas Timmins
UK banks and the Budget
For all the pre-Budget talk that it was pay-back time, Alistair Darling let lenders off lightly
Blogs
Potholes and black holes
Alistair Darling allocated £100m to fill in potholes. But what new did we learn about filling in the £167bn black hole in public finances, asks Chris Giles on the Money Supply blog
Nail in the coffin for pensions
The chancellor said nothing new about pensions. But he confirmed that complex rules on savings are here to stay, writes Alice Ross on the Money Matters blog
The Budget at human scale
Alistair Darling admitted the next spending review would be tight. You bet: raising tax on cider will not make the deficit go away, writes Tim Harford on the Undercover Economist blog
