Did he really think we wouldn't notice?

There were no major surprises in today's budget which was the expected mixed bag of political fence mending and neo-tory toadying to big business.

A half-hearted swipe at greedy individuals with a new top income tax rate of 50% for earnings over £150,000 and the abolition of tax relief on their pensions was balanced with incentives for greedy corporations to be behave even worse by doubling capital allowances and allowing 'loss-making' firms to reclaim the last three years of tax up to 2010, along with outright bribery for the motor industry by offering gullible idiots £2000 to scrap perfectly good vehicles when they buy a new one.

The really 'clever' part was scheduling the tax increase to take effect from April next year and abolition of tax relief from April 2011 giving him the appearance of having listened to the screams and yells of public outrage over 'fat-cat' greed while giving Gordo plenty of time to revoke both of these measures before they take effect.

I expect that he will simply claim they're not longer needed regardless of whether the economy bounces back as rapidly as he is hoping it will or not. But just in case he's given them another year to line their pockets and another two to pad their pensions.