AFTER the catastrophe of 2012 – when George Osborne targeted pies, pasties and charities – and last year’s launch of the controversial Help To Buy scheme, the smart money is on next week’s Budget being a lowkey affair.

The deficit remains eye-wateringly huge, but the pressure to keep his coalition partners happy means that The Chancellor is unlikely to rock the boat. Or is he?

This Budget will be his final chance to meaningfully alter fiscal policy before the next election.

Last month, on a trade mission to China, he hinted strongly there could be support for manufacturing exports.

That would be broadly welcomed, but anything more radical could seriously dent his party’s chances of securing an overall majority.

The Government faces calls to put more money in people’s pockets after years of austerity, but during the same visit to Hong Kong, Mr Osborne declared that the only way to return the economy to health was to fix its finances.

“We must confront our problems and deal with some hard truths,” said the Chancellor, who wants to slash £12bn from the annual welfare budget by the 2017-18 fiscal year.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said it would be a monumental mistake to “balance the books on the backs of the poor”, which conjured up a bizarre and rather painful image.

Whatever happens a week today, it is clear that the budget has become a wide-ranging political statement.

Think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs this week called for it to be abolished.

It fears that the event has become more about chasing votes by providing rafts of goodies for various interest groups rather than a statement outlining the changes to tax rates, allowances and borrowing required to meet public spending obligations.

Perhaps Mr Osborne should go the whole hog and announce his latest austerity measures as part of a stripped back, no-nonsense statement.

THE shock death of RMT leader Bob Crow is a loss to journalists, almost as much as it is to the workers he represented.

In an era of mealy-mouthed soundbite spokesmen, Crow, whose own brother described him as a “loveable little rogue,” was refreshingly candid.

Labour leader Ed Miliband hailed him as a “major figure in the Labour movement”.

I would be amazed if Ed’s own eulogy included that phrase.

“I didn’t always agree with him politically but I always respected his tireless commitment to fighting for the men and women in his union,”

added the Labour leader, who even when he is dolling out platitudes can’t help distancing himself from the Red Ed label which his opponents seem determined to pin to his back.