Burying the Budget
The impression that the sudden resignation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, following his fatal indiscretion in revealing part of the contents of the Budget to a lobby correspondent, knocked all interest out of the Budget itself is only partially true. The things which the Budget did to reduce immediately the inflationary gap were quantitatively so unimportant that there could have been little direct interest in them in any case ; and the danger to the national economy presented by the things which the Budget has left undone continues to overshadow the Budget itself, Mr. Dalton's resignation and for that matter the appointment of Sir Stafford Cripps as Chan- cellor of the Exchequer in his stead. The differences which the increases in taxes and reductions in expenditure included in the emergency Budget will make in the current financial year are in any case small, even though, as Sir Stafford Cripps pointed out on Monday, the saving of over £2,00,000,000 in a full year is consider-
able. Sir Stafford accepted Mr. Dalton's Budget lock, stock and barrel ; and Mr. Dalton's tragic resignation makes no difference to the fact that it was and is a bad Budget. The second thoughts of most observers have been to the effect that the decision to allow only half of advertising expenditure as expenses against Profits Tax was an ingenious if not a very productive device. The same second thoughts have confirmed that the decision to maintain taxes in order to pay subsidies was little short of disastrous. In fairness to the new Chancellor it must be said that it is almost as difficult in practice to reduce subsidies as it is to reduce capital expenditure. He has a terrible task ahead of hint. It can only be hoped that he will not allow his generosity towards his predecessor to Inhibit his ability to make necessary changes of policy with courage and resolution.
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