Alistair Darling really is Gordon Brown MarkII or maybe this was just another Gordon Brown budget

The devil was always in the detail of Gordon Brown's budgets and this PBR seems to follow the same pattern. Amongst the various cons are the fact that the upper earnings limit for National Insurance is going up nearly 10% and that is on top of a 15% increase in April this year. The net result is that anyone earning more than £43k pa will pay £905 more in National Insurance from April 2009 than they were in March 2008. Then there is the 0.5% increase to come. Another little weasely trick is that when the temporary cut in VAT ends and the standard rate returns to 17.5% the increases in duty on fuel, alcohol and tobacco will stay.

I wonder what other Brownies will be discovered in the PBR small print.