It's budget day tomorrow. If the weather were better this would be a good time to go for a 100 mile ride, but it won't be, so I won't. I'll spend my day shouting at the TV instead, and at all the mealy mouthed media pundits pontificating about Tory cruelty toward the poor. Worst will be Balls doing his 'told you so' act, smug as a Cheshire Cat.
Osborne may not be the most empathetic of politicians, but then his job isn't a bundle of fun. He has to find ways of reviving the British economy after Balls and his mental mentor Brown did everything they could to destroy it. And he doesn't have any tools to do it with. New Labour sold all the tools, and spent the money.
When Osborne tells Parliament tomorrow that he's struggling to kick start the economy on fresh air, whilst having to tolerate universal, unfair and unearned condemnation for cutting welfare benefits, - he's right.
No wonder he's having trouble finding his sense of humour, when the media wheels out the Labour spendthrifts who want to fill in the hole in our finances, by digging a deeper hole.
You'll forgive me for the approximate figures I'm sure, so here's what the Brown Balls Miliband intellectual axis did, in round numbers.
When New Labour took over from the Conservatives in 1997, the public sector deficit was £12 billion. Brown had to commit to Tory spending plans in order to get elected so he did. But he broke even his own rules at every turn and, as soon Blair looked like retiring, opened the flood gates, taxing and borrowing and spending for all he was worth.
By the time the country threw them out in 2010, Labour had ballooned the public sector deficit to £160 billion. Annual interest on the £ 1 trillion debt amounted to £50 billion - more than 4 times the entire deficit they inherited.
Everybody with a credit card will understand how easy it is to spend today and worry about paying the bill later, and how difficult will be that paying when the bailiff calls. Unfortunately Brown Balls Miliband didn't, and still don't. For them the answer is borrow more, and then do it again, and again.
They dug a hole equivalent to £40,000 for each and every household in the country, with never a thought about how to pay it back.
Bad as that is, it isn't the biggest problem they bequeathed us. The benefits culture is.
New Labour created a paradigm in which everybody expected to benefit from government generosity. Now all of those something for nothings are squealing like stuck pigs as Osborne attempts to reset expectations. Led by the BBC, and the Unions, and the Charities, and the schools, and the NHS, of course.
This is the poison pill Brown Balls Miliband left for the coalition, and Balls wants the government to swallow it. Spend more to buy popularity and votes, and worry about the consequences later - just like New Labour did.
If that happens, Brown Balls won't be the only incompetents in politics.
Osborne may not be the most empathetic of politicians, but then his job isn't a bundle of fun. He has to find ways of reviving the British economy after Balls and his mental mentor Brown did everything they could to destroy it. And he doesn't have any tools to do it with. New Labour sold all the tools, and spent the money.
When Osborne tells Parliament tomorrow that he's struggling to kick start the economy on fresh air, whilst having to tolerate universal, unfair and unearned condemnation for cutting welfare benefits, - he's right.
No wonder he's having trouble finding his sense of humour, when the media wheels out the Labour spendthrifts who want to fill in the hole in our finances, by digging a deeper hole.
You'll forgive me for the approximate figures I'm sure, so here's what the Brown Balls Miliband intellectual axis did, in round numbers.
When New Labour took over from the Conservatives in 1997, the public sector deficit was £12 billion. Brown had to commit to Tory spending plans in order to get elected so he did. But he broke even his own rules at every turn and, as soon Blair looked like retiring, opened the flood gates, taxing and borrowing and spending for all he was worth.
By the time the country threw them out in 2010, Labour had ballooned the public sector deficit to £160 billion. Annual interest on the £ 1 trillion debt amounted to £50 billion - more than 4 times the entire deficit they inherited.
Everybody with a credit card will understand how easy it is to spend today and worry about paying the bill later, and how difficult will be that paying when the bailiff calls. Unfortunately Brown Balls Miliband didn't, and still don't. For them the answer is borrow more, and then do it again, and again.
They dug a hole equivalent to £40,000 for each and every household in the country, with never a thought about how to pay it back.
Bad as that is, it isn't the biggest problem they bequeathed us. The benefits culture is.
New Labour created a paradigm in which everybody expected to benefit from government generosity. Now all of those something for nothings are squealing like stuck pigs as Osborne attempts to reset expectations. Led by the BBC, and the Unions, and the Charities, and the schools, and the NHS, of course.
This is the poison pill Brown Balls Miliband left for the coalition, and Balls wants the government to swallow it. Spend more to buy popularity and votes, and worry about the consequences later - just like New Labour did.
If that happens, Brown Balls won't be the only incompetents in politics.
