Fishburn Hedges

01.04.2009

At our Budget Breakfast on 2 April, a distinguished panel of experts considered the contents of Alistair Darling’s famous red box when he delivers his Budget statement to the House of Commons on 22 April.

Discussing this year’s eagerly awaited Budget with our friends and colleagues were:

- Robert Cole, a senior writer at The Times who has led the paper’s Budget coverage for the past five years

- George Buckley, UK chief economist at Deutsche Bank

- Alistair Smith, Head of Media Relations at Barclays Group

- Martin Bright, political commentator and former Political Editor at the New Statesman

What's next for... Darling's buds of April? from Fishburn Hedges on Vimeo.

The economic backdrop

The world economy is set to suffer its first contraction this year since the 1930s and, while the Chancellor will insist that the problem is a global one, the UK is worse placed to weather the storm than most of its competitors.

The housing crash, exposure to the financial services sector and sky-high levels of consumer debt have combined to make the UK especially vulnerable.

A three-pronged solution combining monetary/fiscal easing, bank restructuring and measures to boost confidence is needed.

The forthcoming general election means the Chancellor will have to announce some headline-grabbing measures, but question marks remain as to whether any of them will work.

A Budget for jobs?

With unemployment having risen above the two million mark, politics dictates that this should be a Budget for jobs. The problem for the Chancellor, however, is that he has no money to help companies create new jobs or preserve existing ones.

Similarly, the ballooning public finances deficit means that Darling is unable to provide a fiscal stimulus to sectors such as the creative industries which could pick up some of the slack while financial services are in disarray. However imaginative the solutions, there is no money.

Darling versus Number 10

For Darling, his task is made no easier by continual briefings against him by allies of Gordon Brown and Ed Balls. Could it be that Brown can’t let go of his old job, while Balls wants a new one?

A day of newsroom drama…

Budget Day is one of the biggest days in a newsroom’s calendar. But while there is always an atmosphere of tension and drama, the anticipation is often more feverish than the content of the Budget itself.

With acres of column inches to fill, every editor’s biggest fear is that there is nothing new to report, or that the “important” news swamps the “interesting”. This year’s Budget, however, is not expected to disappoint.

... and tensions

Newspapers need to strike the right balance between ‘worthy but dull’ stories and those which entertain.

There is also a tension between the economics writers who cover the economy and fiscal policy on a day-to-day basis and the political writers who muscle in and try to steal the limelight on Budget Day.

Ultimately, coverage will reflect the needs of a paper’s readers as best it can.

Your little piece of the Budget

Ensuring your organisation makes its voice heard on Budget Day requires a mix of preparation and nimbleness.

There are two alternative routes to chose from: commenting on an issue as an expert, or commenting on an issue which affects your particular organisation.

Whichever you decide to take, the golden rules are to secure internal buy-in ahead of time so that spokespeople are ready to speak to the media and quotes do not need to be signed off by multiple layers of management, and to understand that the media’s deadlines are even tighter than normal. Comment on 23 April may just be wasted pixels.

More than just one day

There will often be opportunities to contribute to follow-up stories which the media write in the days and weeks after the Budget, so make sure that you are familiar with the Red Book and supporting documentation.

And remember that journalists are most likely to seek comment from contacts they already know well. Media relations is a 365-day exercise, not just for Budget Day.

Crystal ball gazing

With the economy in meltdown, our panel agreed that the Chancellor needs to act decisively, but there was no consensus on the measures the Budget is likely to contain.

One predicted popular tax cuts matched by revenue-raising measures elsewhere, another called for some morale boosting surprises, while a third suggested that 22 April would go down in history as ‘the Budget that never was’.