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.

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?

From midnight tonight another 2p per litre is slapped on petrol. What on earth does the government think they’re doing? In a recession they should be doing everything they can to help us through it. Freezing taxes would be a start not raising them. Why does the government need more money? What are they going to spend it on? Presumably this is all a whip round for the refurbishment of the Speaker’s flat in the Palace of Westminster or some other ‘worthy’ cause.

This is yet more evidence to show how out of touch the government are with the people of this country. They have no idea how to help improve people’s lives. The government has managed to waste millions over the last decade with failed projects such as the millennium dome and the NHS national database, so they are bound to do the same with this extra money.

How can they continue to justify these ridiculous rises is tax and then expect to get elected by the very people they steal this money from?

UPDATE: Thinking about this further it fits into the government’s socialist theme of clearing the roads by taxing the poor off the roads to clear the roads for the elites.

Despite what environmentalists say about it, this has nothing to do with helping the climate. It’s got everything to do with stealing more money from us and making it too expensive to drive.

I wonder if the government has ever considered why people drive a car? If there was a bus service that could pick people up from their driveway and take them to point B without stopping off at 100 places on the way and a service which only came when you needed it and not when you didn’t then people would use it. Until such a service is available, the car is the next best thing. It’s not our fault that cars apparently omit fumes which effect the environment so why are we being punished for it?

The government knows that people need to buy petrol to keep their cars running so by raising the taxes they are holding us to ransom. The tax rises don’t stop here. In January VAT goes back up to 17.5% which equates to another 2p/litre on top of tonight’s rise and that’s before we take into account rising costs of crude oil.

In a recession it is vital that the government looks after and helps families and small businesses as it is the small businesses which will be the bigger businesses which will be the bedrock of the economy in years to come. Fuel tax rises only hinder their progress. There is something inherently wrong about this government’s priorities and it’s time we made our dissatisfaction with them clear.

In light of the release of the Lockerbie bomber, there has been many calls for Gordon Brown to make some sort of statement about the matter. Apparently, his keeping quiet proves his uselessness as Prime Minister. No. Why in this 24hr media age do we need constant quotes from our leaders. Why do they need an opinion on absolutely everything from the shape of bananas to whether or not a prisoner should have been released?

If any statement is required, I’m sure the Foreign Secretary will oblige. Or maybe not. As of today, he has refused to comment on the matter which only heightens the belief that the decision made was one more of politics than of justice or indeed compassion.

Putting that aside, the PM is on holiday. yes, he needs a break just like the rest of us. It is only fair that we leave him alone for a few weeks so that he can get some rest and spend some time with his family. In the meantime, there is a government minister on duty and matters such as the Lockerbie bomber should be dealt with by the relevant leader.

The problem of insisting a quote from the leader all the time is that it presidentialises our political system. It places too much attention on one man which is not how a parliamentary democracy is meant to be run.

I don’t often come to Brown’s defence because he is a pretty useless PM to be blunt, but come on, give the man a break and allow him to have a holiday. How would we like it if all we wanted was a couple of weeks peace and quiet and our family members (who knew we were on holiday) kept ringing us for up to the minute details of the family’s condition?

I think what is quite clear here is that Brown is using his holiday as a means to keeping quiet on the Lockerbie matter. Clearly there is three way politics at play here and the more they tell us politics and trade deals did not come into it, the more it looks like a cover up.

Put simply, we released a prisoner so that we could keep a lucrative oil deal worth in over £500m per anum. Oil runs the world and money talks. Oil makes money and money makes power. Keeping Megrahi in jail would make a political football of him and potentially jeopardise the trade arrangements and that would be too risky a strategy. Better to annoy America than Lybia seems to be the line taken by the UK/ Scottish Governments.

We knew it was going to be bad. We knew there was to be large amounts of borrowing but never did we know that it was to be a suicide essay of epic proportions written by a government who is in the dying days of power.

They expect 3.5% growth in a few years – that is pure fantasy designed to win voters. They are not good at estimating as shown with the increase in borrowing.

They are raising taxes for the highest earners – again another election factor. There can be no other explanation for it as it will not raise much money. It is designed purely to appeal to the left and as such is a complete and utter disgrace.

The Chancellor has all these wonder ideas about the economy in 2011, but as David Cameron said, he has forgotten that there is an election before then!

This was a completely cheap and shameless budget. A budget which could have been (and may well have been ) written by school children. It is a political budget aimed at the Labour Party rather the country. This government is not governing in the national interests, they are governing in their own selfish interests and that is a 100% disgrace.

Borrowing will now be in excess of £175bn this year alone! Remember, last year he estimated borrowing would be £32bn! Not all that good at estimations are they? This is an incredible figure and it puts borrowing at the highest levels since the Second World War. No Chancellor has ever announced such large rises in borrowing ever in the history of democratic governments in this country! This country will be the laughing stock of the world because of the economic incompetence and stupidity of our government over the course of the last decade.

David Cameron was absolutely correct when he said, “Our children are going to be in poverty for decades”. They will never forgive the people who have done this, Britain cannot afford another five years of Labour. Labour have made an “utter mess” of the economy. Any claim they made to economic competence is dead, over, finished.”

There wasn’t anything of substance from Cameron, but that doesn’t matter. At this stage he needed to rip right through the budget. The electorate is angry at this budget and they will be able to connect with Cameron’s anger in the Commons today. A budget response is not about opposition proposals it is about attacking the government where they are wrong and in this instance there was nothing right.

What is clear is that this government has lost the plot. They are now prepared to borrow, borrow and then borrow more in a shameless effort to gain more votes. Well I have news for Brown &co: You are finished and every last ounce of confidence that anyone had in you has now evaporated over the course of the 51 minute Budget statement.

This budget could have been used to take the county’s economy in a new direction, away from spending and borrowing and into a new era of saving. It didn’t and what it actually did was to ensure Labour loose the next election.

UPDATE: I notice on the HM Treasury website that the 2009 budget is entitled “Building Britain’s Future”. That is a falacy and a joke. It must be.

UPDATE: I’ll have further analysis on the budget up tomorrow afternoon. I’m currently sifting through the full document there’s 268 pages to get through!

Tomorrow is budget day and as such from 12pm tomorrow, there will be a live blog here covering the Budget which is at 12:30pm.

Join me for comments on the budget as it happens tomorrow from noon.

It’s not going to be a great budget and we can expect more borrowing and higher taxes. The more interesting part will come at the end when David Cameron gets his chance to tell the government why they are wrong.