HAVE YOU noticed how in the run up to today’s Budget over the past couple of weeks the subject has struggled to occupy its usual prominent place in the running order of newspaper and television news lists?

Of course there are one or two obvious reasons for this: Japan’s multitude of disasters and military action in Libya are bigger stories.

But there is another reason: the Budget is unlikely to be all that interesting. Indeed its been a few years now since we could look forward to one.

It goes without saying that today’s speech is no different.

The nation’s finances are so tight that we will not be seeing any grand gestures to cut tax rates for individuals or companies for some years to come. We know already that there will be some tinkering round the edges with personal allowances and thresholds, but ultimately the Chancellor’s room for manoeuvre is highly restricted.

We will get the usual predictions about economic growth, which in the past have tended to be over optimistic. This time round, the predictions will be supplied by the politically independent Office for Budget Responsibility, so they should be more credible. But given all other economic forecasters have been revising down their growth expectations, I wouldn’t anticipate any pleasant surprises there.

If we are not to get any substantive measures, how is the Chancellor going to make the most of his political opportunity? Much hype and spin will centre on the idea of growth. George Osborne has, after all, described it as the Budget for Growth.

One would hope, with little else open to him. Mr Osborne will take the chance to announce measures to stimulate enterprise in Britain. There are plenty of relatively cost-free measures available to him, such as cutting red tape.

In common with most other countries, we are going to have to wait a few more years before any real progress can be made with the public purse. Whatever happens tomorrow, we should be grateful that we are not in the same boat as nations like Ireland, Portugal and Greece. Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling may not have been as prudent as they were claiming when they were making Budget speeches, and Britain has certainly been through a high degree of boom and bust, but at least they didn’t mismanage our national affairs as badly as some finance ministers elsewhere did.

While it will be interesting to hear the latest progress report about deficit reduction, don’t expect today’s speech to be anything more than a bit of a yawn.

EVERTON was due to start construction work on its new office and retail development at the Park End within the next few weeks.

It was a badly-needed scheme. The current management offices in the roof space of the Park End stand are not suitable. The idea is management would clear out and the space would be made available for matchday corporate entertainment.

Now it appears nothing will happen for a year. Everton haven’t disclosed the cause of the delay, a bit of secrecy that will lead to speculate about the true cause.

Has a legal dispute erupted at the last moment or could it be that Everton’s financial position is the cause?

Whatever the reason, it doesn’t bode well for any future plans to build a stadium if we can’t get a relatively simple and cheap development off the drawing board.

I guess though, most Everton fans have little faith left in the club’s ability to organise its off the pitch affairs.