A penny off the pint - wow!

I don't  know about you but I was hoping today's budget would bring a re-think of the current government's approach to the economy. I've read so much about the measures being taken in the USA, Canada and the EU, and so many economists have expressed concern at the direction the UK is taking, it looked as if we might get, not a u-turn but a slight hesitation on the part of the Treasury. Not a bit of it. As far as I can see, it's onward and downward, as before.

Just a couple of examples: I can't decide which is more offensive, the attempt to buy votes by raising the tax threshold or cutting 1p off a pint of beer.

Who'll benefit from the tax threshold rising to £10,000? Pensioners, of course. Big thing about pensioners: they exercise their right to vote. And some of them vote Tory.

Why bother cutting a penny off a pint of beer? A sop to the brewing trade and the licensing business who say 18 pubs are shutting every week. Will it make a difference? Not likely.

If you're not a pensioner or a beer drinker, but ordinary working people with a family, most of the news is bad: you can borrow your deposit for a house interest-free but the house has to be a new-build. No help with selling your old house, of course, which is likely to be in negative equity and remains the biggest problem most people face when trying to move house. If you work in the public sector your wages will go on being frozen till 2016, so you can look forward to what is in fact a pay cut of 10% - on top of the 10% pay cut you've already had over the past 3 years. You might be in line for a childcare allowance of £1,200 a year - but only if both parents are working. I love the way the budget announcement said parents would only be eligible for this allowance if they earned 'less than

£150,000'. In my family, all working like dogs, by the way, we'd love a top-notch combined income of £50,000!

If you're doing well and earning plenty, your top rate of tax is being cut from 50% to 45%. What a boon that must be to those people earning over £42,000 a year. Just remind me what proportion of the population is that?  But, of course, these people may just vote Tory too so they have to be kept sweet.

The banking crisis and the recession were man-made catastrophes. I'd like to think we can fix them, but this is not the way.