IF LAST April’s Budget speech is anything to go by, today’s Pre-Budget Report is likely to duck the big issue facing the British economy.

How on earth do we restore the public sector deficit and national debt to the levels we were accustomed to before the credit crunch?

To achieve that would require either bigger tax rises than we have seen so far, or cuts in government spending programmes.

If the Chancellor takes either of those options, he would certainly lose votes at the next election, which is due in the first half of next year.

In any case, Alistair Darling believes high public spending is the only thing saving Britain from even higher rates of unemployment. He won’t want to change that for the present.

As a result, you can expect him to tread a line between looking like he is doing something while actually doing very little. In the week of the Copenhagen climate change summit, we may hear more about the environment, perhaps even some minor tax increases masquerading as measures to protect the planet.

For decisive action, we will have to wait until after the election, when whoever is in power will have to take more stringent action to make up for lost time.

HOW is it going with your preparations for the festive season?

Take a walk around Liverpool One and there appears to be plenty of people out shopping and spending money.

Indeed, John Lewis’s weekly store sales figures show that, in recent months, the group’s city centre store is doing well, indicating that shoppers are still flocking to the still relatively new retail development.

Yet, at the same time, national data for retail sales published by the British Retail Consortium was disappointing. November’s figures were not as strong as October’s.

This time every year, I find myself in awe of the masterful work of the advertising and marketing industry. How do they manage to persuade so many of us to part with ever-larger sums of money in the run-up to Christmas?

Recession or not, many of us go mad and spend money on gadgetry, clothes and other gifts we wouldn’t buy at other times of the year. The marketeers have made us believe that love can be measured in direct proportion to the price tags on the contents of a Christmas stocking.

Frankly, I think last year’s must- have present, a Nintendo Wii, is for people who have been sucked into acquiring everything else. You don’t need one to go jogging or play tennis. You could just jog on the street or call a mate and arrange a match.

And then there is pricing. At any other time of year, I would adhere to my golden rule of never buying any goods at full price. Instead, I would wait a month for the discounted price. But on Christmas Eve I will buy something for 50% more than it’s likely to cost on Boxing Day.

Worse still, though, is the pricing of technology. There are huge pitfalls lurking in the details of the myriad of tariffs and charges. You need to be a rocket scientist to work out the best or most suitable deal.

A mobile phone may appear cheap, but the contract will include a tricky term that will cost you more than you expect. The cheapest printers generally have the most expensive ink cartridge refills.

Oh, for the days when a hoop and stick, a satsuma and a box of Liquorice Allsorts were a recipe for happiness.