And on the election
Source: The Economist
17^th March 2005 (Adapted)

Before the budget which Gordon Brown presented on March 16^th, 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.