The budget has given us a perfect opportunity to re-launch the blog after some discussion and a few changes, which include a new look for our e-mail version and the ability of all visitors to our website to view the blog without having to be logged on to the site. This we hope will encourage our busier visitors to dip in when it most suits them. 

Any rumours that part of the delay in this re-launch may also have been caused by the author's receipt of a new wunder-operating system from those chaps and chapesses in Seattle should be completely disregarded!

Anyway, to the budget. Well as usual a lot of hot air and blather with most of the concrete details bypassed but in fairness there are some interesting points immediately worth highlighting.

The first point is that the chancellors plan for reducing the deficit looks reasonable and would leave our debt to GDP at 75% by the end of the next Parliament. This would leave us in a position similar to other G8 countries. Not bad. Oh..... that depends upon growth of 3-3.5% next year (reduced from a target of 3.5-4%) and onwards. Well that is very optimistic. No economists who had a clear idea of the problems we were approaching gives figures like these any credence. It will be nice if Darling is correct but it seems unlikely; however as David Cameron points out these plans to reduce the deficit fall well short of what is wanted from the OECD, IMF or CBI.

At least we did see a reduction in the estimate for the current year's deficit by a whopping £11Bln. Reducing the total figure to a tiny £167 Bln. Now I read that again that still looks b****y awful to me

In fairness Darling did commit to make savings of around £20 Bln in coming years from the civil service, although the details of how this will be done will apparently not come until after the election. That's a surprise.

At least one upside form these optimistic predictions is that we have seen no changes to VAT, Income Tax, National Insurance or Capital Gains Tax which is good news for most of us and for that we can perhaps thank the proximity of a general election. However IHT limits have been frozen (so in inflation adjusted terms reduced), while alcohol and tobacco taxes have gone up. Expected increases in fuel duty will be staggered.

One real positive step, if it ever really comes to fruition is the targeted support for SMEs which make up the foundation of our economy. The chancellor announced new measures to increase targeted lending from the state owned banks, with a figure of £94Bln being quoted, although how this will work with divisional managers in these institutions clearly scared of their own shadow will be interesting to see.

Additionally there will be a Growth Capital fund to target funding for this sector, funded by both banks and Government, while state organisations will be directed to do business with SMEs where possible and there is a commitment that bills will be paid rapidly, a key point for businesses under cash-flow pressure.

An additional help for the sector is the news that businesses will be able to depreciate £100k of new investment in one year.

There will be much more detail fleshed out as analysts dig through the small print, which as usual makes listening to the politically driven blather of limited value (perhaps apart from those who want to sell me blood pressure pills), however this budget could have done some real instant harm and at least that has been avoided, with financial markets decidedly non-plussed.

If we see anything interesting dug up after the details are sifted over the coming days we will report.

And finally....

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way
computers have enhanced our lives, read on.

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the
computer industry with the auto industry and stated,  'If GM had kept up
with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25
cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon..'

In  response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press  release
stating:

If  GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars
with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash.........twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a
new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason.  You would
have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the
car, restart it and reopen the windows before you could continue.  For some
reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre such as a left turn would cause your
car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to
reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable,
five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five
per cent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be
replaced by a single 'This car has performed an illegal operation' warning
light.

7. The airbag system would ask, 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and
refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned
the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to
drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same
manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the  'Start' button to turn the engine off (ok, let's be fair that's how you do it in an Aston Martin or Range Rover!).

PS - I 'd like to add that when all else fails, you could call ' customer
service ' in some foreign country and be instructed in how to fix your car yourself!!!!