<p><br/></p> <p><span>Every year at Budget time my Dad used to always tell me the story of Hugh Dalton.</span></p> <p><span>Dalton was the chancellor of the exchequer under prime minister Clement Attlee in the post war government. In 1947 he was on his way to deliver his autumn Budget in the Lords – the Commons still being bomb-damaged – and his route took him past the lobby journalists. For some unfathomable reason, Dalton told a journalist for <i>The Star</i> – a now defunct London evening newspaper – some of the tax details of his upcoming speech. According to <i>The Guardian</i> he said: <span>"No more on tobacco; a penny on beer; something on dogs and pools but not on horses; increase in purchase tax, but only on articles now taxable; profits tax doubled."</span></span></p> <p><span>These details appeared in the evening paper before the Budget speech was completed. As a result Dalton resigned.</span></p> <p><span>My Dad used to tell this story because he would inevitably be irritated by Budget leaks and he harked back to a time of discretion and honour, when if you erred you took full personal responsibility.</span></p> <p><span>That era is well and truly gone of course. Quite what my Dad would have made …