Budget: the definition of disappointment
Dave Powell
25 March 2011
This was Budget week. I work in our economics team so I'm afraid I'm a bit of a geek for this kind of thing.
But even I have to admit to coming over a bit distracted when the Chancellor gets into full jargon-spraffing mode: things like "our fiscal mandate is to achieve a cyclically-adjusted current balance by the end of the rolling five year forecast period".
What?
Because most people haven't a clue what all of that means, those sterling folk at the Treasury have made a handy glossary which explains lots of the terms Mr Osborne likes to bang on about.
If you don't know what on earth quantitative easing is, let alone why you would want to ease a quantity in the first place, it's perhaps worth a look.
Sadly, the Budget itself was a pretty hefty disappointment from a green point of view. So I reckon the Treasury needs to go back and redefine some of its terminology:
Appreciation. The sentiment one is unable to properly display for a Budget which does set up a Green Investment Bank, the thing we've been calling for to get the money flowing to the clean energy we urgently need, but then says it can't do much that's useful for at least five years.
Deflation. The feeling one experiences whilst listening to the Chancellor taxing UK oil and gas producers by a surprise £10bn over five years, but then using absolutely all of it to make petrol cheaper.
Interest rate. Something that declines sharply as the Budget's many disappointments kick in.
Deficit. The amount of joined up, inspirational green thinking one begins to suspect is on display in the Budget.
Oh, and:
Asset. A thing which, when it comes to the environment, it doesn't appear the Chancellor knows from his elbow.
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