2 NOVEMBER 1945, Page 15

Hodge on the Budget

One does not expect crisp criticisms of a Budget from a countryman ; but I heard the following on the morrow of Budget day : " So they've taken off the tax on refrigerators but not tractors! " No comment was made. Country folk often exhibit the art of the Greek epigrammatist: they let the fact speak for itself. If one must spoil this epigram—it would seem to be an earlier duty to encourage production than to ice produce.