"Darling hatches Zzzzzzz-plan Budget"

The BBC are reporting that "Expect the chancellor to bore for Britain. This will be the dull, dull, dull Budget. Deliberately. And no, that's not just because Alistair Darling is not the most scintillating of orators, or the most sparky of politicians. It's because within government there is an emerging view that "dull" is actually good politics. As one government insider put it: "We can't beat Cameron on charisma but we can beat him on competence." So expect plenty of references to "stability", "the long term", "tough decisions" - all delivered in Mr Darling's world-weary, flat-as-a-pancake monotone. "


Let's examine this:

1. the BBC are now trying to convince us that Alistair Darling is not dull but pretending to be dull so as to reassure us. No BBC; he's dull, really dull, almost unbelievably dull.

2. the BBC report as fact that labour believe they can beat Cameron on "competence". Has anyone at the BBC noticed the state that the UK is in both economically and socially after 10 years of Labour government?



The BBC article also states that:

"Mr Brown faced accusations that his last Budget was "a con trick" - after he announced with a flourish that he was cutting the basic rate of tax by two pence only for it to be revealed that he was simply putting up taxes elsewhere."


Accusations of a Gordon Brown "con trick", just accusations. The facts you present would seem to indicate that it was a "con trick" but the BBC cannot criticise Gordon the Great.