The Budget

Sadly my break has come just a little too early to catch Darling's first budget but I am very much looking forward to it.

I think the Chancellor can put a lot of bad news behind him and nail this budget fairly easily. I don't see the Conservatives landing many punches in the afternoon debate for example.

Or maybe it's just me that is happy with what is expected to come:

• Drivers hammered for the luxury of owning a car, particularly the gas-guzzling, ozone sapping big cars. I don't own a car so he can tax them to the eyeballs for all I care.
• Air passenger duty being replaced with a tax on flights. A ridiculously sensible idea and one that has been a long time coming. Remarakably it may bring flight prices down if the Ryanairs and Easyjets can keep their flights full which shouldn't be too difficult. So good news there.
• Booze, no doubt, will have a bit of a hike which is fine with me as a very light drinker. As long as he leaves whisky alone I'll have no complaints there.
• I don't see him touching stamp duty either. The housing market is correcting itself quite nicely and intereference from the Government might affect that so I'm happy for it to be left alone. And anyway, my flat is stamp duty exempt so, selfishly, I have a competitive advantage in the market.
• Forcing supermarkets to charge for using carrier bags. A simple yet effective way to reduce the needless bags in society. I already have my reusable bag (which doesn't always get reused I do admit) and I have also given up on supermarkets for 2008 so the above shouldn't affect me while it combats climate change at a very local level.

Time will tell if all of these things come to pass but I have both of my thumbs primed and ready for a successful first Budget from Chancellor Darling.