The Minister for Finance would hardly have been expecting any plaudits on the morning after Chancellor Alistair Darling's Budget confirming the mammoth scale of Britain's debt. But the Daily Telegraphserved one up yesterday (Thurs) as Britons awoke to the reality of tax rises and spending cuts to come through the life of the next parliament and beyond.

"Three weeks ago Brian Lenihan delivered an emergency budget that treated the voters like grown-ups", declared an editorial reflecting the sense that Darling's budget probably marked the moment of authority, if not yet power, shifting from Labour to the Conservatives: "He (Lenihan) made no attempt to gloss over the scale of the sacrifice needed from everyone, politicians included. What a contrast to the Chancellor's lifeless recitation of a string of footling, inconsequential measures, and his stubborn refusal to admit any responsibility whatsoever for the cataclysm that has befallen us."

At an earlier point in the unfolding global crisis, the tone and disposition of some British commentators would have been markedly different. Mr Darling and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, it may be remembered, were more than a little discomfited by the Irish Government's original decision to answer the banking crisis by guaranteeing deposits. London's own bail-out of the banks
has of course since bequeathed British taxpayers a likely (stg) £60bn loss.

Irish officials in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff could also detect latent antipathies and old prejudices at work in some articles rather gleefully reporting the collapse of the Celtic Tiger and dismissing the Irish economy once again as "a basket-case". This however, was largely before the extent of the British recession was laid bare and Conservatives were left to fear the poisoned chalice that will be their inheritance should David Cameron win the general election. Against predictably
"knocking" copy, too, it should be acknowledged that Minister Lenihan received a respectful and attentive hearing during his recent St Patrick's day mission, in the course of which he made light of attempts by some British Euro-sceptics to entwine the current Irish economic experience in
the UK's European debate. Writers across a spectrum including the Independent, The Sunday Timesand the Telegraphhave continued to speculate about the impact of the crisis on the Euro and whether Ireland might be one of a number of smaller countries eventually forced out. The Guardian, on the other hand, has warned against any "crowing on this side of the water",
noting that Britain and Ireland are part of the same global economic jigsaw. The Financial Timesalso splashed recently with an article by Peter Sutherland arguing that "the basic strengths of the Irish economy remain formidable" and that Ireland will be in a strong position to benefit from
the eventual recovery."

One potential embarrassment and major irritation might have been to find Labour ministers citing Ireland in the debate with the SNP over Scottish independence – this in mocking rebuke of Alex Salmond's original enthusiasm for the "arc of prosperity" embracing Ireland, Iceland and Norway later unkindly dubbed one of insolvency. But then, Mr Salmond didn't have to await Mr Darling's budget for confirmation of his argument that size has nothing to do with it.