Final Thoughts on the Budget

As I write it is around 9.30pm and the four days of Budget debate are drawing to a close. I took part yesterday when the theme was the Environment. Although the Budget was labelled as 'green', it turns out that the total increase in 'green taxes' by 2010 was less than £2 billion - or 'rounding error' in the Treasury's scale of things. My colleague Vince Cable contrasted the 'apocalyptic' language of the Budget speech regarding climate change with the 'timidity and deferral' that characterised most of the measures.

One of the less thrilling features of the way we deal with the Budget is that at 10pm we vote on a series of 'Budget resolutions'. There are dozens and dozens of these but in practice we will end up voting on perhaps 5 or 6 - the rest will go through 'on the nod'. But with each vote or 'division' lasting 15 minutes, it means we will not be through until around 11.30pm. The first few votes are reasonably sociable, with chance to catch up with colleagues and those of other parties (when you are in the same lobby), but after an hour or so of waiting around, the novelty does tend to wear off.