The budget

[Guy_Montag]

discuss.

when I was wee I hated budget day because children's programs were relegated to BBC2, if not dropped altogether.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

1. It seems to be a standard pre-election budget

Although Brown isn't giving away as much as he did in 2001. The Tories came across disorganised and out of ideas in Michael Howard's budget response.

I get the impression that Gordon Brown is going to be Prime Minister in the next 12-18 months, judging from talk of it being Brown's "final year as Chancellor". I doubt Gordon Brown would accept anything less than the Prime Minister job.

There is an interesting piece in the Guardian, especially the final two paragraphs that relate to this:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/economics/story/0,11268,1439107,00.html

---------snip---------------

"On the question of whether today will have helped Mr Brown land the top job, the answer must be that it hasn't done his chances any harm. He remains the only candidate to succeed Tony Blair. How soon he does so depends on the message Labour candidates bring back from the doorsteps during the election campaign.

Labour candidates already tell of having to reassure constituents that Mr Blair intends to stand down before the end of Labour's third term. If those candidates find themselves in the majority of the parliamentary Labour party after polling day, the prime minister could be gone in the year. Then Mr Howard's jibe of this being Mr Brown's last budget might turn out to be true."

[non sociopath skin]

2. Why did Howard's "Bring 'em on" remind me of Kinnock's "We're all right?"

The Skin

[ben_packard]

3. I'va also hears another possible outcome

Some have said that Blair will move Brown to another post in order to overcome some of his objections to Blair's ideas on funding for public services, which he may persue at the beginning of a third term knowing that he has little to lose.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. And then Brown would have to decide whether to accept

Some say he will refuse anything other than Chancellor. If he did, then Blair would be contending with an unofficial opposition in his own party.

[tjwmason]

5. Anything else would be a distinct step-down for Brown

Let's face it, he's practically been running domestic policy for quite some time. The only other position in government he could take without demotion is P.M.

[ben_packard]

6. Perhaps we could widen his experience

with a more 'political' role, perhaps foreign secretary wouldn't be too big a step down (though iirc he might have said he's not interested in this).