The Chancellor’s Budget today was less of an economic report and more a p0litical fight with the opposition. With an election weeks away, it was always going to be a Labour party broadcast rather than a government’s budget, but the attacks on the opposition were simply disgusting. The constant “Mr deputy speaker, we have invested when the others wouldn’t have and the economy would have therefore been in a worse condition” nonsense was repeated many times by the chancellor.

We got the usual fuel, cigarettes and alcohol tax rises. Interestingly, the fuel duty increase is 3p by the end of the year, but staggered at three individual 1p rises – this is deliberate because it would not look good to have a 3p rise form 1 April – days before the election is called.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the budget, in an otherwise dull and uneventful statement was the announcement that the government is looking to sell off various assets including the Dartford crossing in order to provide more money in the system. The problem here is that the money raised is only for the short term as it is single use money. Once spent, it won’t recycle itself back into the treasury pot.

The main problem with the budget was it’s length. It’s dullness and general lack of anything new. What we have is a tired government, a government that has run out of ideas and a government that has run it’s course and now needs to call it a day and let someone else have a go at putting the country back on track.

Above all, what the chancellor fails to realise is that this is a phantom budget. A budget that will never get to legislation because in 43 days time the country goes to the polls to select a new government.

The stamp duty proposal has been completely copied out of Conservative policy. The government intends to continue to borrow over £100bn per year for the next 6 years. It continues to impose a tax on everything whether it’s cars, cider, phones or shoes. The country simply cannot go on like this.

I could go on, but it will be too boring – much like the Chancellor’s statement. In summary, today’s budget sums up this government. As Cameron quite rightly said, in 13 wasted years we have gone from top of the premier league to bottom of the conference league. It’s a disgrace, this government should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for taking this country down as far as it has.

What is clear is that Labour has done it again. For the fourth time, they have completely failed on the economy and have completely failed in their job of running the country. They are simply unfit to run this country and Britain does not need this Prime Minister, it needs a new direction under new leadership with new energy.

Today’s Guardian carries a letter from ‘leading’ lefties. It calls for a second stimulus package to ‘protect’ the economy and ‘stimulate growth’. It’s not a long letter (the arguments in favour of such things aren’t as you can imagine extensive), but it is perhaps best summed up in this sentence:

“A programme of government investment would not only stimulate the wider economy in the short term, but would increase long-term growth, thereby lowering the debt levels through a higher tax take.”

So, borrowing, £6,000 every second has stimulated the economy? The Government didn’t need to borrow in January did it? When will these idiots realise that you just can’t keep chucking money at a problem and hope it will fix itself? In just 56 days the country will have to make a decision. Do they want five more years of Gordon Brown and Labour who will put the recovery at risk by dithering on action? Or do they want the Conservatives and David Cameron who will act quickly to cut the deficit in order to keep things like mortgage rates lower for longer?

Incidentally, the list of people you might want to direct your abuse at for this ridiculous letter are as follows:

Colin Burgon MP

Alex Smith, Editor, Labourlist

Austin Mitchell MP

Anne Cryer MP

Alexandra Kemp, Chief Executive, West Norfolk Women and Carers’ Pensions Network (personal capacity)

Bellavia Ribeiro-Addy, NUS National Officer

Billy Hayes, General Secretary, CWU

Byron Taylor, National Trade Union Liaison Officer, Trade Union & Labour Party Liaison Organisation (TULO)

Cat Smith, Vice Chair, London Young Labour

Chris Edwards, Senior Research Fellow, UEA,

Chris McCafferty MP

Chris McLaughlin, Editor, Tribune

Christopher Cramer, Professor of Political Economy of Development, SOAS

Clifford Singer, Director, The Other TaxPayers’ Alliance

Colin Challen MP

Compass Youth Executive

Dave Anderson MP

David Drew MP

Dai Havard MP

Dave Prentis, General Secretary, Unison.

David Hamilton MP

Diane Abbott MP

Denis Murphy MP

Edward O’Hara MP

Ellie Gellard, Labour blogger

Grazia Ietto-Gillies, Emeritus Professor of Applied Economics, Director Centre for International Business Studies, London South Bank University

Glenda Jackson MP

Gerry Doherty, General Secretary, TSSA

Gordon Prentis MP

Prof. George Irvin, Univerity of London, SOAS.

Professor Ian Gough, Professorial Research Fellow, LSE

Hugh Lanning PCS Deputy General Secretary

Hywel Francis MP

Harriet Yeo, Labour Party NEC

Hilary Wainright, Co-Editor, Red Pepper

Ismail Erturk, Senior Lecturer in Banking, Manchester Business School

Janet Dean MP

Jeremy Corbyn MP

Jim Cousins MP

Jim Sheridan MP

Jon Cruddas MP

John Austin MP

John Ross, Editor, Socialist Economic Bulletin

John Weeks, Professor Emeritus of Economics, SOAS, University of London, and former director of the Centre for Development Policy and Research.

Jonathan Rutherford, Professor of Cultural Studies, Middlesex University

Katy Clark MP

Karen Buck MP

Keith Norman, General Secretary, ASLEF

Ken Livingstone

Kevin Maguire, Associate Editor, Mirror

Kelvin Hopkins MP

Martin McIvor, Editor, Renewal

Malcolm Sawyer, Professor of Economics, University of Leeds

Mehdi Hasan, Senior Editor (politics), New Statesman

Michael Connarty MP

Michael Meacher MP

Mick Shaw, President, FBU

Mike Wood MP

Michael Burke, Economist and contributor to Socialist Economic Bulletin

Neal Lawson, Chair, Compass

Neil MacKinnon, Chief Economist, VTB Capital

Paul Kenny, General Secretary, GMB

Paul Truswell MP

Paul Sagar, New Political Economy Network.

Pat Devine, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester

Peter Kilfoyle MP

Peter Willsman Labour Party NEC

Prem Sikka, Professor of Accounting, University of Essex

Richard Ascough, Regional Secretary, South Eastern GMB

Richard Murphy, Director, Tax Research UK

Roger Berry MP

Robin Murray, Fellow, Young Foundation, Author of Danger and Opportunity:Crisis and the New Social Economy

Roger Godsiff MP

Ronnie Campbell MP

Sam Tarry, National Chair, Young Labour

Sunder Katwala, General Secretary, Fabian Society (personal capacity)

Susan Himmelweit, Professor of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University

Terry Rooney MP

Tim Roache, GMB Yorkshire Regional Secretary

Tony Juniper, environmentalist

Tony Woodley, Joint General Secretary UNITE

Will Straw, Editor, Left Foot Forward

So, the figures are out. Britain is out of recession. Statistically that is, however we all know that the effects of a recession go on long after the economic slump has ended. Today’s figures showing a 0.1% growth in the final quarter of 2009 was the first period of growth for 18 months. But, that doesn’t tell the real story. Of course, the headlines Downing Street wants pumped out is “Britain out of Recession”. The government will claim that our coming out of recession is mainly due to the measures they put in to protect the economy.

The problem is of course, that’s not the truth. If you walk into clothes retailers on the high street, they will tell you that business is slow. If you go to hotels they will tell you it’s quiet. The simple fact is that the final quarter of 2009 included Christmas and thus it’s no surprise that there was slight economic growth due to people buying presents.

0.1% is an incredibly small growth and there is nothing to suggest that the economy will continue to grow in the 1st quarter of 2010. The labour government inherited a strong economy. We know this because they committed to Tory spending plans for the first three years of government. After that time, the economy started to slide and there’s only been one party in power during this time. Brown claimed we were best prepared to weather the storm, yet we were the first G20 nation into recession and we’re the last out of it.  Meanwhile, each newly born baby is saddled with £17,000 of debt and this is what Gordon and his moronic crew believe to be ‘best placed’!

Whatever the next few months holds for our economy doesn’t particularly matter when it comes to the election. many people are very much of the mind that it is Labour who has caused this mess. They’ve had their chance to make the country better and they’ve spectacularly failed. The British electorate will not forgive them for that and now the time is up. Despite the left still claiming there’s a chance Labour will win the next election, a poll out for Channel 4 last night by ICM shows that people will not reward Brown for ending the recession. Some 46% feel worse of now than they did 12 months ago. That’s a staggering increase and shows just how many people this Labour recession has had a large negative impact on.

The last chance Brown had was if today’s figures showed reasonable growth. But they haven’t and the growth is only just growth. Things are much much worse than we may have thought a few months ago. That emergency budget from Osborne is looking more and more needed as the weeks go by.

First it was France and Germany, ow the US have come out of recession and we are still firmly in it with a 0.4% contraction in the last quarter. Remember all that chat form labour about how you need to invest and spend you way out of a recession? Remember how wrong the Tories were about the need for spending cuts and, oh yes, remember how Britain was best placed to weather the storm?

Perhaps that all looks a bit wrong now doesn’t it?

Gordon will not admit it but his great gamble of record borrowing has not paid off and has made him and in turn the country the laughing stock the world over. Even if Britain pulls itself out of recession by the beginning of 2010 we will still be one of the last of the world’s big economies to come out of recession. I tend to look at the markets to judge where the economy will be in 6 months and we’ve only fairly recently seen a steady rise in the FTSE100. By my reckoning we’ll be officially out of recession by the 2nd quarter of 2010, but just because we’ll be out of recession will not mean that the economy is all rosy again.

The unemployment rate continues to rise and will probably peak at over 3 million. Consumer confidence is still very low

We have to remember that our economy has shrunk by 5.9% since we went into recession. That is quite a jump for an economy of our size. It will take a long time to recover, it will be painful during the process but we’ll get there.

As a side thought. If every baby born today is born having to saddle about £25,000 of debt as a result of Labour’s economic incompetence then what happens if  we stop having babies? Who will pay the money back?

Mid-way through  March and I am yet to see an 09 plate on a car. By this point in March and September, usually one would expect to have seen several new cars, but this month (the first issuing of new plates since we officially entered a recession) I have not seen any. there are quite a few 08′s and 58′s driving around, but no 09′s as of yet. Perhaps more signs that this recession is much deeper than we were first led to believe.

You would be forgiven if you didn’t know the 42 days terrorist detention Bill will be voted on in the House of Lords today. With all the goings on in the economic crisis, this story seems to have become a minor issue.

I expect the Lords to vote it down which means for it to become law, Gordon Brown will have to use the Parliament Act to force it through the Commons, bypassing the Lords. If he did do this, there would be criticisms as it would appear he was neglecting the economic crisis. Tat path is therefore an unlikely one to take meaning that the whole process will have to start again which I can’t see happening until after the next election, by which time one hopes to have a government who will not push through such ludicrous laws.

Hopefully we have been saved from 42 days by the economic crisis. It may be costing us all a lot of money, but at least it seems to be indirectly protecting what civil liberties we have left.