Newspaper round-up: The Budget 2008

Posted by Katherine

The Independent
The Independent devotes its entire first page to the Budget with the headline “Mr Darling and his box of tricks”. The paper begins by suggesting that Darling’s speech was similar to the past 10 Budgets: “The self-congratulation, the repeated references to stability the announcements of footling little bits of spending and of targets for 2050 and the glossing over of the bad news with big numbers.” It goes on in this vein for much of its 20-page supplement.

“Maybe Darling’s optimism will be vindicated. But don’t bank on it.”

The paper takes the stance that the Budget was pathetic, failing to satisfy the green lobby, assuage first-time buyers, assist pensioners or save the economy from a recession.

The paper does smile on the chancellor’s refusal to back down on non-domiciled workers, the extra help for key-workers to get on the ladder and the tax increase on alcohol, but it is presented as not enough.

The paper also predicts ill times ahead for Labour. Darling could have impressed by delivering a powerful green Budget or showing intellectual rigour in understanding market economics. “Instead, he did neither. “Ultimately, Mr Darling is keeping his fingers crossed.”

Daily Mirror
Interspersed between offers for Cheltenham bets and news that of the “suicide cop’s secret lovers”, the Mirror acknowledges that the Budget happened yesterday. In the four-page section devoted to the Budget, the Mirror’s main point is that drinkers and smokers get huge tax rises “so kids an pensioners get more.”

The paper praises Darling for living up to his reputation as a safe pair of hands before going on to cover Paul Gascoigne’s first outing after rehab and rumours that Kate Moss has a stalker.

The Times
The paper leads with “The hangover Budget” and focuses on the increases on the tax on alcohol, the continued effects of Gordon Brown and the predictions of a slowing economy. “The chancellor’s options had been so limited by the uncertainty in the world’s financial markets and the measures taken by his predecessor that if the option had existed of not holding a Budget, Mr Darling might have taken it. Instead, he did the next best thing: he delivered a do-nothing Budget.”

The paper also provides a 24-page supplement, which leads with “Fingers crossed, Darling.”

As well as providing general coverage of Budget winners and losers, Darling’s overall performance is widely derided: “An incredible talent to be stupendously, doggedly dull.” But they do acknowledge that Darling is boxed-in and limited in his options.

“Even rose-tinted spectacles fail to offer glimpse of a bright future.”

The Daily Mail
Eleven pages of brilliant comment and analysis, says the Daily Mail on its front page. Let’s see … the p1 lead calls Darling “the man with rose tinted glasses”, accusing the chancellor of gambling on Britain sailing though the global credit crunch.

“So boring he even stupefied himself”, says Quentin Letts of Darling’s performance.  Lacking any hard news to report on, The Daily Mail has done some digging and discovered that the Treasury forecast 230,000 immigrants will arrive in the UK every year. The Mail also found out that Britain could become the first western nation to issue bonds that comply with Sharia laws, the Muslim principle that money cannot be used to make money.

The Daily Mail claims its campaign forced the chancellor to change plastic bag laws, despite the fact that Darling didn’t actually change the law yesterday. He said he may change it if supermarkets don’t make progress.

Finally, the green taxes are “just another way to fleece us”.

The Guardian
Darling is labelled a “hesitant debutante” in The Guardian, and a column on p1 asks if he’s the most boring chancellor ever. It has a handy buzzword counter, with stability hitting the top of the list with 23 mentions, followed by the environment and climate change with 15 mentions.

The Guardian’s 16-page Budget supplement is a bit light-on. It features just 13 pages of Budget news – with enormous images and diagrams on every page – and three pages of business news. Along with the rest of us, The Guardian was expecting more substance from yesterday’s Budget. The supplement has a chart that explains the fuel duty on each car band and a chart explaining where the Treasury earns and spends its money. The biggest feature is on the environment and housing.

The Daily Telegraph
The Telegraph’s headline on its front page is “Darling’s war on family cars”, which says it all really. They suggest Darling is penalising families, seemingly unconvinced the measure has anything to do with fighting climate change. They also damn the increase in alcohol duty, saying it will impact “moderate drinkers”, implying that it will not help curb binge-drinking.

Further editorial writes of “Dozing with Darling, the Napoleon of dullards” and the paper also takes issue with Darling’s economic forecasts, saying they are overly optimistic, in spite of him admitting times were tough. Perhaps unusually for the Telegraph it highlights how Darling’s “poverty of new ideas abandons millions in the poverty trap”, stating that, according to the treasury’s own figures, the less well-off will be more adversely affected by the abolition of the 10 per cent rate of income tax than the wealthy.

The Daily Express
The Express’s front page doesn’t focus on any policy announcements, but rather on an alleged comment by Ed Balls, the Labour frontbencher. When David Cameron accused Labour of imposing the heaviest tax burden on the country in our history, the Minister for Children apparently said, or “sniggeringly retorted” as the Express would have it, “So what?”

So what indeed. The Express clearly cares, seeing it as evidence that Labour “does not care a fig about the merciless financial squeeze suffocating millions of households”. The rest of its analysis is predictably anti-Labour, calling the Budget “An utter insult to the British people” and is even running a text-in poll asking “Are you disgusted with Labour’s arrogance?”

The Sun

The Sun kicked off its coverage of Budget 2008 with the front page headline “Don’t drink OR drive”. Well, considering the reduction in road tax for less polluting cars, and a paltry 4p on a pint of beer, mean the Budget might have made it cheaper overall to drink and drive [although never at the same time] that’s a bit strong for a weak Budget.

But never a paper to let down people looking for a considered, rational approach, the Sun leads with “Millions of Britons were hit in their pockets by yesterday’s shocking Don’t Drink or Drive Budget. Killjoy chancellor Alistair Darling clobbered drinkers with a SIX PER CENT tax hike on booze. And he hammered motorists driving typical family saloons with new road tax bands”.

Inside the cover we have “Skiving test” for the 2.6 million people on incapacity benefit. The rise in beer and wine (that will cost someone drinking five pints in a night just 20p) is brought up again with a “Nobody Inn” headline – “Pubs ‘doomed ‘as booze up 6%” the Sun exclaims.

Darling also apparently has something against Ford – “I don’t like Mondeos” is the headline on pages six and seven.

The Sun also stands out for this sentence: “Fashion experts reckon Alistair Darling’s tie was made in London’s Savile Row – but he could have got something similar in BUDGET store Primark.” [their emphasis] What, exactly, was the point of that observation? They don’t know where the tie comes from.

Financial Times
“Darling plays for time in the face of global turmoil” is the lead in the Financial Times.

Concessions in the non-dom rules also make the front page – where “corporate leaders welcome concessions over controversial plans to tax non-doms”. There’s a breakdown of the key pull-out facts form the report on the front page as well.

Inside the FT takes a dim view of the economic reports. “Dark clouds over the Treasury”, “Speech bereft of secrets and light on soundbites”, and “Fig leaves to hide fiscal nakedness” are the headlines on pages two and three.

“Relief at lack of damaging initiatives” is the FT’s business outlook. On the economy the FT notes that consumer spending is in trouble.

The number-crunchers at the FT have also worked out that spending on education has been hit by £500 million, while work and pensions is the biggest winner.

All in all 27 pages of Budget coverage, and very few pictures.

del.icio.us Tags: Budget 2008,Alistair Darling,nationals,Financial Times,Daily Mirorr,The Sun,Express,Daily Mirror,Guardian,Independent,The Times

Technorati Tags: Budget 2008,Alistair Darling,nationals,Financial Times,Daily Mirorr,The Sun,Express,Daily Mirror,Guardian,Independent,The Times

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