The Last Chance Saloon Budget

 'This is a budget for long-term growth' is how the Chancellor began yesterdays budget but then he said exactly that at the previous budget and we are in recession now it wasn't the best of starts to what many believe will be the final one from the Conservative Government before the General Election.
As all political parties do in the election year budgets, there was the usual bribes and this time it came in the shape of 2p off National Insurance and the promise of scrapping it altogether at some point in the future which would be very well received if we didn't know that with each National Insurance cut comes the proviso that it will mean more years having to work before the state pension kicks in, it has already been quietly raised from 65 to 67 with 68 and even 71 being mooted.
Jeremy Hunt then went on to explain that this budget that was going to cut the overall tax burden, he was obviously unaware that even with his cut to NI, the tax burden over the last 14 years of Conservative Government was at its highest since 1948 but by then he had moved on to how he was scrapping
the Non-Dom's tax who would be expected to pay their tax here to pay for his 2p NI cut, money which the Labour Party had earmarked for the NHS but  it's not as if that public service is on its knees or anything after being horribly underfunded all this time.  
By now the Blue side of the house had almost given up bothering to cheer their man, they knew that the jig was up and Hunt was their last chance to try and pull off something job saving in the last chance saloon but all they got was some warm beer with a fag butt floating in it.   
Fuel duty was frozen despite having said in his Autumn statement that not freezing it was the only way he could meet his own fiscal rules but then this was the Government knowing they were almost certainly going to be moving into the Opposition side of the house when the election does come are are merrily salting the Earth for an incoming Labour government, and then having the cheek to charge us for the salt.