The Government faces a £60 billion bill for saving the banks, and ministers admit that they have no idea whether tax revenues from the financial services industry will return to the levels they reached before the credit crunch.
She adds that
The traditionalists argue that once economic growth returns, the hole will gradually be filled without the need for drastic tax rises or swingeing public spending cuts. The modernisers are pushing Mr Brown to think more radically about the scale and scope of the State. Everything - including the NHS, schools and the benefits system - should, in their view, be on the table.
Steve Richards in the Independent thinks that the Government wants to prove it can makes cuts without impairing public services.The situtaion he believes is
Labour's fiscal expansionism versus Tory spending cuts becomes a more subtle split with Darling seeking to stress that he will cut too, while also finding room for an investment package with a green tinge, a Budget for growth as Peter Mandelson has put it, but a Budget with cuts as well: another convoluted third way, perhaps.
Polly Toynbee in the Guardian believes that tomorrow presents a unique opportunity for the Chanellor to go down in history.
By emulating the spirit of the People's Budget, Darling can give voters a rock-solid reminder of what Labour is for
She says that Darling should
Give voters one rock-solid reminder of what Labour is for. It would restore due north to Labour's spinning moral compass. Social justice comes first, even in dark times. I hazard the dangerous guess that Alistair Darling will do it.
Mary Ridell in the Telegraph believes this is the final swansong for Labour and agrees with Toynbee.Darling could do worse than emulate another crowd-pleaser
David Lloyd George who declared war on "poverty and squalidness", in a budget that brought in a supertax on the rich. With Britain once again in recession, and with Tory fortunes on the rise, there are calls for Mr Darling to follow the Welsh Wizard and unleash another "People's Budget".
She thinks that the Chancellor could
create a bonfire of the inanities and throw on the fripperies of the good-time years, such as Trident (replacement cost £65 billion), ID cards and the quangocrats earning more than the PM. At the least, he should invest in the poorest families. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) is calling for £3 billion to go towards the Government's pledge to eradicate child poverty by 2020. This would also stimulate the economy: by the CPAG's calculations, each pound invested in tax credits and benefits would boost the economy by £1.60.
Alex Brummer in the Mail says the budget is
going to be a horror story. No amount of 'greenwash' in the shape of incentives for more fuel-efficient cars, or verbal optimism about prospects for recovery, will be able to detract from the depth of the slump and its unprecedented impact on the public finances.and reminds us that
the real shock will come in the current year and beyond, with borrowing now estimated to reach £160billion to £170billion in the fiscal year 2009-10, when it will hit 11.1 per cent of total national output. For reference purposes, that is more than three times the levels demanded by Maastricht as part of a nation's criteria for entry to euroland.
A line that Peter Riddel takes in the Times when he writes that
The public does not yet realise how much pain it faces to get the public finances back on track.
And in the same paper let's not forget the Green issue as Nicholas Stern writes
Tomorrow's Budget is a critical test of the consistency and credibility of the Government's policies on climate change.
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