Budget may not be bold enough to save Brown

The budget unveiled by British premier Gordon Brown's government Wednesday may have effectively fired the starter's gun on an election campaign but some already doubt it is radical enough to save his skin.

Figures released hours before the budget which showed unemployment at a 12-year high of 2.1 million underlined the scale of the task facing Brown and his Labour Party as they lay the groundwork for elections expected next year.

The budget was seen as central to Brown convincing voters he is the man to steer Britain out of choppy waters, even though opponents say it was his decade as finance minister under Tony Blair which landed it there in the first place. "The general election campaign starts in earnest today," The Times newspaper wrote in an editorial Wednesday. "(Its) political sleight-of-hand will set the terms for the electoral contest that must take place before May 2010."

Initial signs were that the budget, delivered before a packed House of Commons by Brown's low-key finance minister Alistair Darling, may not contain enough eye-catching, practical measures to reverse Brown's fading fortunes.

The main problem was a lack of money because of shrinking tax revenues and the high cost - an estimated 3.5 percent of GDP - of propping up British banks brought close to collapse by the credit crunch. AFP