Gordon Browner, or the imaginary ten pound note (Gordon Brown Tenner) © Matt Buck Hack Cartoons. Made for Channel 4 News in the UK

It was a very pre-general election budget, raising taxes on the richest (50% top rate) and pushing what look like inevitable tax rises for everyone else out beyond the date of the next election. The national borrowing requirements are predictably enormous (Cameron made this point well in reply in the house) and clearing them does seem to be based on some rather optimistic forecasts about national economic growth after 2011 (3.0% plus). If the recent McBride/Draper email disaster didn’t already show how desperate and dirty the election campaign was going to be, then this budget definitely does. Oh, and watch the value of the pound in your pocket (again).

Faisal Islam from Channel 4 News has some detail on the scale of the borrowing and the speed of the recovery. And the IMF have their say too – caution, it is not cheery.