Budget reaction to speeches

In short Darling tried to base his speech on a review of decades of history, revising the time period he mentioned depending on the point he tried to make. He still doesn't seem to understand that not all spending on the public services is investment.

David Cameron made the point that the general public knows things aren't as good as Darling tries to make out. He had a few good put downs ready for the middle classes bogey man Ed Balls. He was also able to counter the selective quotes of the UK's performance and show the truely shocking nature of the UK's debt and balance of payments.

Nick Clegg had a OK joke on ventriloquist dummies - however you can't help but suspect Vince Cable must have been writing his jokes .....

All in all no knock out blows. Darling will feel he faired OK as will Cameron. But the general public is going to notice their tax, council tax, shopping bill and the cost of filling their car up and paying their mortgage. And believe me that's going to put all of us in a bad mood.

Review

Darling 6/10
Cameron 7/10
Clegg 5/10 - should try harder ( but only heard first few mins so perhaps he improved ).

Update: Headed of to pick up my kids from School wondering if I'd been too kind to Alistair Darling. It seems everyone agrees.

Also Elliott Joseph accuses Darling of hiding a massive Defence cut in his rambling about the last few decades. If true this is disgraceful behaviour ( but the sort of shameless thing you come to expect from liars and deceivers like Labour politicians ).