Gordon Brown's wish to delay the budget comes as no surprise. As he poursover the deteriorating figures he obviously wants to delay sharing the truthwith us for as long as possible. He will discover that prevarication makesmatters worse. There is a gaping hole in his plans, with spending and wastesoaring and revenue not performing well. He also needs to worry about thehousing market: in the high priced sections of the market we are now wellinto Gordon's very own boom and bust. It is quite wrong to put the budgetout during an election period, and wrong to delay telling us the truth aboutthe worsening financial situation.

John Redwood