The budget of 1909 was one of the most controversial of all time. David Lloyd George proposed a large tax burden on the landed classes to pay for higher social spending. The day after the budget the Guardian ran a round up of press coverage of the budget. The Liverpool Post called Lloyd George "a man of courage" but the Daily Telegraph said the budget was a "vast scheme full of bewitching contradictions and complexities".
Back to Gold Standard But Not To Gold Coinage, was the Guardian's headline. As chancellor of the exchequer, Winston Churchill's budget nearly ruined his political career. Restoring the gold standard effectively revalued the pound and led to Britain's prolonged slump. "Returning to gold standard does not mean we are going to adopt gold coinage," Churchill said in his speech.
The Tory chancellor, Nigel Lawson, made a grave error in his budget of 1988. Income tax fell from 29p to 25p giving the housing market a huge boost. House prices rose 20% in a year, heralding the Lawson boom and the beginnings of the first recession. The Guardian reported that behind the tax cuts the reality would be different. "At the end of this year there will be rather more people paying income tax than at the beginning of it," wrote Hamish McRae. The reason: the country was getting richer.
Norman Lamont's budget was labelled "shameful" by the leader of the Labour party, John Smith. Taxes on beer and cigarettes were raised by more than the rate of inflation and tax rises were introduced on gas and electricity bills. The Guardian said Lamont's budget would see "no gainers" this year, but the "losses will be sharper next year".
Gordon Brown was the chancellor behind New Labour's first budget after coming to power in 1997. Brown called it a "people's budget" which would fulfil Labour's election promises, The Guardian headlined it "Brown's conjuring trick" – a radical shake-up of the welfare state. He was to find £3.5bn for schools and the NHS. VAT on fuel was cut and a £5bn one-off tax on privatised electricity and water companies was introduced. Like the 1909 budget the levies from these taxes were earmarked for welfare programmes.
"It was the budget of Gordon Brown's dreams," wrote the Guardian's economics editor, Larry Elliott, after Brown unveiled his 2002 budget. A traditional Labour budget focusing on redistribution, social justice and an increase in the size of the state. It may only have been seven years ago but times could not have been more different. Labour had a "whopping" majority and a substantial lead in the opinion polls, unemployment was well below 1 million and growth was averaging 3% a year. "Quite simply, things are never going to be better than this for Brown," wrote Elliott.
Brown's final budget as chancellor was full of confidence. He announced his intention to cut two pence off the basic rate of income tax and talked about the "longest period of economic stability and sustained growth in our nation's history". But there were hints that Brown faced problems – borrowing was high and rising inflation forced him to take a tough line on public sector pay. Yet the budget remained positive. "Everything in yesterday's package was predicted on the assumption that the economy can motor along at close to 3% a year until the next election," wrote the Guardian.
In his first budget as chancellor, Alistair Darling defied City scepticism and said Britain would only suffer a mild and short-lived slowdown in "difficult and uncertain times". Headlined the "hesitant debutante" by the Guardian, Darling's budget increased alcohol taxes to help raise the £1.7bn for child poverty targets. Excise duties put 4p on a pint of beer, 14p on a bottle of wine and 55p on a bottle of spirits.