A date with Darling

Except for the bankers, it was forgettable and nondescript.

The best line in the pre-budget report was the shadow chancellor’s description of Alistair Darling’s reluctance to provide details of planned public sector spending cuts - “ringfencing a black hole.” The publicity loving speaker John Bercow performed some comic turns, interrupting both the Chancellor and Shadow Chancellor to reprimand two overexcitable MPs. Both were determined to spice up the most boring budget in living memory. Increasing NI by 0.5% isn't the huge event that some commentators are making it out to be.

More interesting is the view that this PBR actually highlights the current fragility of the UK economy.

Alistair Darling's third pre-budget report took place within months of the next general election and with that in mind, he provided very few details of where the £5bn axe will fall in the public sector and provided little to cheer up the private sector. As expected, he increased NI and VAT is back to 17.5%. We’ll explore these and the other fiscal changes as our expert commentators digest the details.

As expected, there is the one-off tax on bankers’ bonuses above £25,000. Banks are already conspiring to remunerate staff differently to avoid paying the tax and some, no doubt, will make noises about relocation out of the UK.

But there are few places where they’ll get a warm welcome and they may decide a one-off tax is not such a high price for the bailout. The public may like that piece of blatant electioneering but, that aside, this was the PBR equivalent of another day at the office.