It could well have been scripted to be a pre-election economic platform, this pre-budget statement from Alistair this afternoon..
The national economy.. was going to be adversely affected by the American Housing Bubble.. growth has been downsized to around 2% or 2.5% for the coming year..
Oddly enough we heard the same from George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor at the Tory conference..
Net borrowing.. to be kept within 'sustainable levels' guided by 'restraint'..
A bit of a non-statement there..
However.. net borrowing was forecast to fall from £38billion this year to £23billion in 2012.. roughly £3billion a year if we start now. How, was not quite explained though..
And on the environment.. Alistair said aviation duty would be paid on flights, rather than individual passengers..
We heard that proposal just a week or so ago from.. the Conservatives..
Now Alistair touched on a myriad of taxation issues.. allocation issues.. funding issues.. but to make what seemed to be a long statement much shorter.. it boils down to the usual suspects..
A promise of a judiciously administered economy.. of improved funding for better public services.. without the fine details of just how the money is going to be raised..
It must be said that the Shadow Chancellor had a field day..
And it was also clear, that while Gordon is officially Prime Minster.. he had made more than a small contribution to that which was delivered to the Commons this afternoon..