Oh dear, oh dear. Darling has resorted to the old refuge of tired and impotent politicians; he’s created another quango. Or, more precisely, he’s promised to create one.  This one is called the Credit Adjudication Service and, should it ever see the light of day (which I doubt), it will probably be dubbed CrAS.

This new service is supposed to fast-track the investigation of complaints by small businessmen who feel they have been unfairly refused credit by a bank.  I am no fan of the banks, but we absolutely do not need an army of civil servants investigating every application for a loan that is turned down for whatever reason.

In reality, if a businessman has a decent business plan he will find a bank willing to lend him money.  He just has to shop around.  Banks are there to lend money.  It’s what they do.  The real problem at the moment is that they are overcharging small businesses for this money.  Interest rates can be as much as 6% over base and loans usually come with hefty – and unjustified – administration charges.

To be effective, an adjudication service will need teeth. So, in addition to the hundreds of bureaucrats needed to investigate banks’ decisions, there will have to be teams of enforcers.  Talk about sledgehammers and nuts!

Budget Day is a week away.  Given that the General Election will take place only a few weeks later – well before any proposed measures can take place – you might wonder why we are having a Budget at all.  But – as I expect you’ve already guessed – the purpose is to allow Gordon Brown to paint a picture of the Utopia that his economic wizardy will allow us to enjoy – provided we support him at the polls.

His message is that he alone holds the key to a painless recovery; that industry will be supported to avoid job losses, taxes will not rise; front-line services will be protected and interest rates will remain low so mortgages will remain affordable.   But if you believe all that then you probably still believe in Father Christmas.

The truth is that there is likely to be a lot more pain before the recovery is complete – and that’s assuming we don’t have a double-dip recession.  Britain’s budget deficit is £178bn.  This can be funded only through massive Government borrowing, which in due course will inevitably force up interest rates.  Money, after all, is just a finite commodity and excess demand will drive up the cost.

Furthermore, there are large swathes of the country – mostly in the North – where the public sector accounts for 60-70% of the local economy.  Given that all parties have promised spending cuts, it’s hard to see how large-scale job losses can be avoided.  But, of course, this will happen AFTER the election.

Experience tells us that, when nasty medicine is needed, the sooner you take it, the sooner you get better.  So beware the siren voices counselling against early spending cuts – they probably have their own vested interests to protect.

It’s time I think to take a slightly more considered view of the PR merits of social media.  To listen to some of the chatter coming from PR schools, you would think that the combination of social media and PR, so-styled PR 2.0, has rendered traditional PR techniques completely obsolete.  This, of course, is nonsense.

PR 2.0 clearly is a valuable tool to have to hand.  It is another way of communicating with a particular audience.  But I suggest its real value is for consumer PR accounts, where establishing brand values is of critical importance.  But many – if not most – businesses actually want business-to-business PR.  They want to see their firm reported in their particular trade magazines or the business pages of traditional newspapers.

Similarly, most journalists do not have time to trawl the web looking for stories. They may well have their Linked-in, Facebook and Twitter accounts and be aware of what topics are trending on these sites, but they still depend primarily on well-written, relevant news releases for filling their pages.

This is not dinosaur-speak or luddism. I use Twitter and find valuable information on the web. I simply want to introduce a more balanced perspective to the debate.  PR is all about communicating with your target audiences, getting the right messages to the right people.  And that, I suggest, will involve a blend of traditional PR 1.0 and web-based PR 2.0 techniques.