A Budget Of Very Many Names
This Budget is one that there appears to be no consensus on the name. Last year’s budget was the “2p or not 2p” Budget, in reference to the backfiring of Brown’s “2p tax cut”, which turned out to be nothing of the sort. Naming this budget is something that Nick Robinson tried a few days ago, but what can we call it now that we have seen the whole thing?
But this year’s has names ranging from the “Green Budget,” due to the supposedly “green taxes” that are being imposed on Bad Things by Gordon Brown Alastair Darling [but don't miss the irony in this], and the recycling nature of the proposals. Along similar lines in John Redwood’s name of the “plastic bag budget“.
Then there’s the titles “Responsibility” or “Stability” due to the mantra of the overall theme and buzzwords - and the title of the of budget by the Treasury being “Stability and opportunity: building a strong, sustainable future“. But that’s boring. Which brings me nicely to the next option…
The “Boring Budget”. This is by far the strongest contender for the job, especially considering who the Chancellor actually is: the dullest man in Britain. Bloggers say that they found it boring [I didn't watch, I was busy working], MPs were falling asleep in the Chamber, and the entire Budget was just, well, bland. And here’s five reasons why.
There is, of course, also the possible name of the Taxing Budget, but that would include every budget of the past decade - if not of all time. Ben Brogan also suggests that it could be an Election Budget.
There can be only one name for each Budget, and the name that wins for this one is quite plainly the Boring Budget. No other name quite works. Whether or not this turns out to be a good thing for the government in the end remains to be seen.
UPDATE: The Times is calling it the “hangover Budget” on their front page, due to the increase in taxes on alcohol. Clever, but the Boring Budget still wins out.
