Alastair Darling's Budget -- amongst things that caught my eye.....

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From October 2009, rules for housing and council tax benefit will mean families on benefit are better off in work.

From April, 2009, child benefit will be increased to £20 a week.

For environmental reasons, fuel duty will rise by 0.5p per litre in real terms in 2010. He said he was postponing the 2p increase in fuel duty until October this year.

From April 2010, all long term recipients of incapacity benefit will attend work capacity programmes

Cigarettes up 11p a packet.

Beer up by 4p a pint, wine 14p a bottle, spirits 55p a bottle and cider 3p a litre by Sunday.

I got 500g (actual Polish stuff Guliver or something I think it is?) for £7 so nerrr

yeah, but he's a snob about his Golden Virginia .

ahhh well his loss then

Can I just ask, what in God's name has happened to the red briefcase? Is Mr. Darling shopping in the charity shops?

Micrathena, that's the real Budget bag. It was originally used by Gladstone for his 1860 Budget and had been used ever since until Gordon decided to waste money on a nice shiny new one when he became Chancellor in 1997.