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The flurry of pre-announcements and leaks ahead of today's budget are quite a contrast with decades gone by.

Back in 1947, Labour chancellor Hugh Dalton resigned after telling a reporter some juicy details of what he was about to deliver.

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."

The first was that MPs were still sitting in the House of Lords chamber in 1947 because the House of Commons, badly bombed in the wartime blitz, was still being rebuilt. As a result the chancellor had to walk past lobby journalists on the way to the Lords, a hazard that Osborne does not have to face.

The second was that Dalton's political minder Douglas Jay, who would normally have been on hand to fend off the journalist, had been sent on ahead to check that there was a glass of water at the dispatch box for Dalton during his speech.