Budgets are a tricky business. You have to appeal to different audiences and balance competing objectives. Ideally, there should be something to keep your backbenchers and media cheerleaders happy; it should also appeal to the wider public; it should be sufficiently fiscally responsible to keep the bond markets off your back; and it should strengthen the ability of the economy to grow and prosper.
We do not, of course, live in an ideal world and some of these objectives and some of these audiences have mutually exclusive requirements. Preparing a Budget, therefore, is all about trade-offs and compromises. If you are fortunate enough to be involved, the process is the most intellectually challenging and fascinating one that you will ever experience, even if you are rarely left fully satisfied. If you focus too much on good policy at the expense of good politics, you can walk into a political mess. Play it entirely safe on the politics and you feel as if you have wasted a precious opportunity to improve the country.
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