Brown budget suffers from charm deficit

Even when he's presenting a pre-election giveaway budget, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown cannot quite let himself go. Maybe he should look to our own Minister for Finance, who likes nothing better than to savour the moment of his own largesse. Quite right too. Too often, finance ministers are the bad boys of governments, the people to whom it falls to rein back the expectations of fellow ministers and the public in the interest of prudence. If you can't enjoy the good times, there must be little fun in the job.

Mr Brown certainly delivered what many of his party's natural constituency sought - more money for education and healthcare and specific benefits targeted at families and children. But there was still the feeling that it was done grudgingly and the complex nature of some of the measures showed the bean counter's head ruling the socialist heart.