Post-budget thoughts

What I enjoy about post-budget day is the graphs depicting government spending get prominence in all the papers and people, for at least one day of the year, look at where the money is going. Wow. We are spending as much on the DPB as we spend on Defence. Well, actually, we spend more on people on the DPB. An extra 1 percent is hidden away in "other" benefits. (1 percent equates to over half a billion dollars).

Of course, the big story with welfare spending is that it's static. If this is what we get after the 'up' stage of the economic cycle what can we expect after the 'down'?

And why all the focus on National Identity? I think there is a word conveniently missing off the end. What is the government softening us up for? Think Britain and Blair.


Hey Diddle Diddle
Cullen's on the Fiddle
The Cow's just Over the Moon
The Poodle laughed to see such fun
As the Pork Barrels rolled into June