Alistair Darling 'to Announce Date Of The Budget'

[Ash4781]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7409559/Alistair-Darling-to-announce-date-of-the-budget.html

Alistair Darling is to announce the date of the budget this morning, the Treasury has disclosed.

Given that there is a general election looming, the date is seen as critical for the Government and there has already been intense speculation that it will be held on March 24

Not expecting anything for FTB's.

[Gone baby gone]

Instead of announcing the date on which he will announce the date, why doesn't he just announce the date?

It's pathetic isn't it? Just like leaking the entire contents of some speech before the politician in question actually delivers it. Makes the whole thing looks like the pointless charade it actually is most of the time.

[lulu]

Instead of announcing the date on which he will announce the date, why doesn't he just announce the date?

They should not be allowed to have a budget so close to an election.

It will be nothing other than a series of expensive bribes to get 'hardworking' familes to vote for them

[lowrentyieldmakessense(honest!)]

They should not be allowed to have a budget so close to an election.

It will be nothing other than a series of expensive bribes to get 'hardworking' familes to vote for them

Yep

and where are these hard working families and how many of them are out there

[Lepista]

24 March.

And I think most people will see through the charade. if Labour don't set out some pretty hard hitting measures, then the Cons shouls rightly rip them to pieces. But I doubt they will.

[RDW]

It will be nothing other than a series of expensive bribes to get 'hardworking' familes to vote for them

And when the markets muller the pound and we have £1.50 petrol where will the expensive bribe be then ?

How about a really hard budget, cause a national crisis a la greece, and then call off the General Election due to civil unrest.

Talk about a rock and a hard place.

[sign_of_the_times]

How about a really hard budget, cause a national crisis a la greece, and then call off the General Election due to civil unrest.

I'm sure Gordon has pondered that one as a means to staying in power longer

[Matt Bear]

I still wonder whether we'll get a budget at all - seems a risky strategy to wait until end of April/May for an election when Q1 data will likely be out - so maybe they'll call for an election before the budget is due to be delivered. Alternatively maybe they'll deliver the budget then immediately call an election. I don't know what the markets would do in such circumstances - I guess Moodys et al. wouldn't downgrade immediately - so the government may prefer that than letting the markets mull over the contents of the budget and allow the effects to start being felt on the economy.

It seems clear to me that the market reaction to any budget will be play a large part in determining public opinion ahead of the election.

[Lepista]

To be fair, each of the parties should really deliver their own budget - after all, we don't yet know which one will be implemented.

[RDW]

To be fair, each of the parties should really deliver their own budget - after all, we don't yet know which one will be implemented.

How can the opposition deliver a budget, they can only guess at the state of the books at the moment.

[deflation]

Most of the changes in duty, taxation, etc. have already been announced in Nov 2009. Any 'bribes' won't have time to take effect unless it's a headline one that can be done straight away, cut in fuel duty perhaps?

i think they've made a big mistake in waiting til May. The first 50% tax-rate pay packets will appear in April and a lot of strikes over the pay freezes and changes in redundancy conditions are on the horizon, including BA and the railways, not just public sector.

As mentioned before, the GDP revision of 4Q 2009 is announced at the end of April too.