Never before has a new Chancellor had his hands so tied or his voice so confined as he stepped-up to present his first Budget speech.

Alistair Darling must surely have wondered why he accepted the job at all when he assessed his choices for fiscal and taxation reform.

Rather than making his mark as a new Chancellor, it was clear right from the start that he would have to stand in the shadows of his predecessor and play 'follow the leader'.

Darling really only had two choices: he could apply a colossal amount of spin to avoid acknowledging the obvious problems being faced by the economy; or he could maintain some amount of dignity by admitting things had gone dreadfully astray, resulting in there being less coins in the piggybank than government thought there should be.

I suspect his puppet master, Gordon Brown, made the choice for him.