The Marx Brothers land in Duck Soup

After virtually universal derision in the press, Alistair Darling's latest budget will probably go down in history as perhaps one of the worst ever delivered, which is some feat, given the budgets of Labour governments' past. For instance, check out this excellent piece by the Jeffster:

=> Now we are all up to our ears in it

But if you think that's a bit predictable, being from one of my usual favourite trio in the Torygraph, then how about this from the Gramscian Grauniad:

=> Deepest budget cuts since 70s to fill '£45bn hole'

Or even this, from the multi-cultural hegemonists at The Independent:

=> Britain's new age of austerity

With actual real-term increases in government spending still planned, despite the worst recession since 1926, it's hard to imagine how anyone with the slightest sense of pride or morality could have written or delivered this budget. However, I suppose that if you have been a Scottish Marxist since childhood, as the two clowns above have been, then what better legacy can you leave the children of the English, than to have raped and pillaged their land for a decade, and then to have left it on its knees for three decades trying to repair the damage (assuming it is repairable).

Having been accused myself of being delusional, for daring to suggest that tax eaters eat tax, one can only wonder what delusions live within the minds of men who think they can get away with claiming that the British economy will be expanding by 3.5% in just two years time.

However, it would appear that the mainstream British media have failed to fall for it. Which is excellent news. Even the formerly Brownite Sun has seen through the mirage:

=> Darling's quick debt away

If you have played a part in this, in constantly harrying mainstream economics commentators in newspapers, putting them on the back foot, or defending the views of maverick writers such as Liam Halligan or Jeff Randall, allowing them to retain the support of their editors, then I salute you.

I claimed in a post a few months ago that things are different now than they were in the 1930s. Back then, only a small handful of isolated men knew what was going on, which allowed the politicians of the world to mire us in Keynesianism for 20 years.

But it is with with a sense of relief that it really does appear that there is now enough economic sense about to constantly shoot such idiocy down in flames. Check out this piece in the Daily Mail, a newspaper which Brown has spent years trying to court:

=> Darling's secret tax bombshell: Black hole to cost families £2,800 a year for TEN years

Let us hope and pray that enough of this sense still exists in fourteen months time when Brown is finally forced to the polls and Cameron gets his (probable) go with the train set.

Like George Osborne, I still haven't ruled out Gordon Brown's outside chance of winning this election; there are still plenty of client-state voters out there who know who their paymaster is. However, judging from the reaction of the British press to this budget, my fears of a gullible electorate have receded somewhat. Only knucklehead stooges such as Kevin Maguire and Mary Riddell seem to have kept the Labour faith, by producing feeble attempts to suck up to Brown, with remarkably similar titles to their Brown-nosing pieces. However, you can tell their hearts aren't really in it:

=> Kevin Maguire's verdict on the Robin Hood budget: Chancellor aimed a few well-placed arrows

=> At long last, a Robin Hood budget

(BTW, well done to anyone who can ever find the necessary energy to comment on Mary Riddell pieces, to keep this socialist muppet in her box. These days I can never summon up the will, and usually barely make it to the end of one of her pieces without wanting to throw myself under a train.)

But the third and second best pieces have to be from my usual pair of favourites, Iain Martin and Liam Halligan:

=> The country is exhausted with Labour, but help is on the way

=> The lesson from Budget 2009 is that our politicians are blind to Britain's financial risks

If we all keep up enough pressure on all of these newspaper columnists, particularly the out-and-out Keynesians, then even David Cameron may realise that he must do the right thing, if he wishes to succeed, rather than the politically expedient thing, should he get the nod in fourteen months' time.

I think this attitude is best summed up by an excellent piece by Matthew Parris, in The Times, which is perhaps a much better read than any more pontification from me, so if you haven't already read it, I heartily recommend that you do. I really have saved the best budget story newspaper link for last:

=> This is a fight the Tories cannot afford to duck

Well done, Mr Parris. Who would have thought it? He was a Thatcherite, all along. Remarkable.

Obviously, as an anarcho-capitalist myself, I think all politicians are hopeless clowns. But even we anarcho-capitalists have to occasionally come down from the delusional cloud-cuckoo land we normally occupy and live in the real world. And if forced to choose between another five years of Gordon Brown or a government which actually dares to cut government spending, as a matter of principle, then I'll take option two please.

The trick will be to actually make them do it. That's why none of us must relent in pushing forward the ideas of Rothbard, Mises, and Hayek, wherever and whenever we can summon up the energy and the will to do so.

Every little helps.