There's a common strand of criticism developing on the Budget (pdf link), decrying its political intent. Well, as the Americans like to say, duh. It's the penultimate budget before the 2010 General Election, one where Labour have to demarcate what they're about. Decrying "political" motives is disingenuous at best and utterly cynical at worst. But that's what Iain Dale has done in his blog (choice quote: "It was a political budget in that he shamelessly appealed to the Labour Party’s happy little band of envy warriors"), while the Guardian's Toby Helm has a straightforward look at its political intent, and Conor Ryan does similarly.

SO what of the political intentions? Tax rises for the wealthy, for the first time in over 30 years: red met for the left wing. There are numerous protests about the "inefficiency" of this, especially an absurd column from Anatole Kaletsky in The Times, complaining that this tax rise will drive bankers to Switzerland or Luxemburg. The non-dom bankers who pay less tax than their cleaners? Or the British bankers, who we were constantly being told were paid so much because they, like Andie McDowall, were worth it?

Income inequality in Britain is the fundamental cause of the myriad social ills it has been experiencing in recent times. Poverty in the pocket produces poverty of the mind, and poverty of the soul (if you'll pardon me for using such a fuzzy term). UK children, as has been well noted, languish near the bottom in the well-being rankings of OECD nations. So this crisis has opened opportunities which otherwise would have never have been grasped (as Rahm Emanuel said, "Never let an opportunity go to waste"), when public services could receive increases in investment while taxes remained stable. Now the parties have to choose who they are for. Hence the squeals of the right-wing.

In general, however, it was terrifically disappointing that nowhere did Alistair Darling address the fundamental causes of Britain's terrible finances - our reliance on finance, neglect of manufacturing, and our poor savings ratio. It might be argued that saving is the last thing required at the moment when consumption motored so much of the economy. But without increased savings, banks have nothing to lend. Until Britain and especially the USA sort out their import/export imbalances, they will be vulnerable to swift terrible corrections as is presently occurring.