Category Archives: Budget 2012

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.

I have been listening to the sneering tone from the BBC this morning as regards the imminent Osborn budget. Even Davies was tweeting that “I wonder if an aspirin can help protect people from the Chancellor”? earlier this morning.I cannot recall any of the Labour budgets being undermined in this fashion but it seems the BBC just cannot help themselves when it is a Conservative Chancellor. Stephanie “Two Eds” Flanders was speculating that an increase in stamp duty on property over £2m was not really adequate and that maybe in the future there should be some annual additional charge on property! It strikes me that instinctively the BBC want to see some of that redistribution of wealth that excites them so.