Objection sustained
I AM sorry to see Nigel Lawson slipping back into the Treasury's bad old ways. For years, the Budget had been allowed to creep earlier and earlier in the calendar, as officials' alpha minds worked out that the sooner they staged the annual increases in excise duties, the more money they could collect. By Denis Healey's time, Budget day was early enough to clash regularly and intolerably with the National Hunt festival at Cheltenham. To be fair to Mr Healey, it was his habit to bring in other budgets at different times of year. Sir Geoffrey Howe, with no such excuse, continued to pick on Cheltenham week, changing his Budget day only to accommodate the enthrone- ment of the Archbishop of Canterbury (now preaching against tax cuts). Mr Law- son knew better, and it was one of his earliest and most welcome reforms that kept the Budget and the racing apart until this year. He seriously proposes to rise to his feet shortly after the Champion Hurdle. I need not chide him. Suffice it to say that if, as is widely supposed, he wishes to attract attention to what he has in store for us, he is going the wrong way about it. To the shadow Chancellor of the Exche- quer, Roy Hattersley, the natural conclu- sion will present itself. I expect him to adopt, as Labour Party policy, that Budget day should henceforth be the third Tues- day in June — for the fun of keeping the City away from Ascot.
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