THE GRANNY BASHING BUDGET

Look, I am not a fan of the Coalition, and I am far from impressed with David Cameron, but even I feel a little sorry for the PM, and his Chancellor,  having listened to the BBC post Budget analysis. Osborne was on the Today programme and did OK, I suppose, but the entire ethos of the interview was to suggest that the Budget was really a sop to the rich and an attack on the elderly. It doesn’t matter that it was neither, it is the suggestion that counts, and across the UK the BBC has been to the fore in the past 24 hours in doing everything to make the Budget seem downbeat, unfriendly and so very different from those nice sunny uplifting Budgets delivered by Brown and Darling. Ed Balls was interviewed waffling about how there “was not one single item in the Budget that did anything for jobs”. He was not challenged. Shortly thereafter, the BBC announced the GlaxoSmithKline were investing £500m in the UK and creating 1000 new jobs. I also note the language the BBC use – for example the Chancellor “gave” millions to “the rich”.  Surely what the meant to say is he allowed them to keep more of their income, not quite the same thing but if you are a wealth redistributionist favouring broadcaster, I suppose that is more easily explained.