And on the election
Source: The Economist
17th March 2005 (Adapted)
Before the budget which Gordon Brown presented on March 16th,
many in the Labour Party hoped that the chancellor would thunder to the
rescue of their faltering election campaign. But Mr Brown, hemmed in by
the deficit he has built up over the past three years, did not have the
freedom to make grand gestures. Instead, he had three, fairly modest,
aims.
First, he wanted to put the economy at the center of the
election battle and to remind voters of its success while he has been in
charge of the Treasury. Second, he wished to target disaffected Labour
voters with a few modest electoral sweeteners. Third, he wanted to allay
worries about a tax rise after the general election. He succeeded with
the first, was quite effective with the second but had a less convincing
case to make on the third.
Mr Brown does not do modesty, least
of all about the economy. In his last budget he claimed that Britain was
enjoying its longest period of sustained economic growth for more than
200 years.
Mr Brown's approach to his own economic achievements is marked by
