If there’s one thing distinguishing this morning, then it’s just how placid everything feels. The clouds are moving sluggishly across the sky; there’s little excitement about the measures expected in the Budget; and there are no stories about rifts between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. Indeed, Downing St insiders tell the FT that relations between Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have been “pretty good” in the run up to the Budget, because both are “broadly agreed on the strategy of halving the deficit in four years while backing growth initiatives.”
Many are taking this as a sign that Darling and Peter Mandelson have won out in their efforts to coax Brown away from the crude “investment vs cuts” thinking of yesteryear. And it’s true: the early emphasis has been on getting borrowing down and, consequently, it doesn’t sound as though today will be a spending bonanza (even if we should keep an eye on how much several new “guarantees” will cost the government).
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