Can Darling pull something out of the hat?

After a decade of Gordon Brown budgets it’s going to be quite a change seeing Alistair Darling delivering his first budget with his predecessor at his side.

What has he got in store? Will he be able to wrong-foot Cameron who has to make a response immediately afterwards without having had any chance to read and assimilate the details?

Given that a general election might only be thirteen months away what’s announced today might play a major part in Labour’s recovery plan.

As we discussed yesterday the budget has become a major betting event. I’m on the number of times Darling uses the word “Prudent”.

The speech starts at 12.30 immediately after PMQs.

Mike Smithson