UK budget: Brown’s chips

The UK is gambling on a big deficit to produce big growth. But it looks like it is putting the chips in the wrong place. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, faces a grim situation. Tax revenues are plummeting as the sudden recession squeezes the economy. The government’s reliance on the financial services industry for revenue has left it terribly exposed. An economic downturn would produce a gigantic deficit without the government doing anything. But Darling has used Monday’s pr...