Blast from the past | 12 March 2008

Pictures have just landed of Darling holding aloft the old Gladstone budget box – ditching the new one Brown’s constituents made for him in 1997. First time we’ve seen this since Ken Clarke’s 1997 budget. Darling will want this to be symbolic of a new era – no Brown-style deceptive budgets, no tricks this time, we’re told. Funny to see Darling distancing himself from Brown in this way. Let’s see if his Budget wafts the false scent we’ve become so accustomed to expecting.