I will leave it to wiser heads and the passage of time to determine the effectiveness of Tuesday’s Budget.   But, from a communications perspective, George Osborne got it right.   The message from the Treasury was that the economy had been trashed by Gordon Brown’s feckless socialists and, once again, it was up to the Conservatives to restore stability and sound economics.   And, importantly, the electorate bought it.  The evidence of Government inefficiency, waste and needless interference can be seen everywhere.  So, by the time Osborne rose to speak, everyone was expecting some very unpleasant medicine. 

But it actually wasn’t as bad as most people expected.  Taxes on booze, tobacco and fuel have been left untouched and the rise in VAT was widely anticipated and would probably have happened if Alistair Darling was still Chancellor.   Rather cleverly, the VAT increase does not take effect until January, making it highly likely that retailers will have a bumper Christmas as  people bring forward purchases they had planned anyway.    The consequence of all this is that the only people moaning particularly loadly at the moment, apart from the Labour Party, are the professional whingers in the public sector trade unions and various charities involved in welfare-related issues.   Nobody, apart from the BBC, is paying them much attention at the moment.

By way of evidence that my reading of the public mood is right, I’d like to cite an online poll being run by the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette of readers’ reactions to the Budget.  When I looked on Wednesday afternoon, about 60 per cent said they thought it was tough but fair.  So full marks to George Osborne and his team for managing public expectations so effectively.  I suspect the hard part of the job is just beginning.

As someone who regards himself as a friend of Israel, I am saddened by the recent debacle off Gaza – but not for the same reasons that are getting most commentators’ knickers in a twist.   

I believe Israel has a perfect right to control who and what enters Gaza, given that the Hamas regime is committed to the destruction of the State of Israel and is supported by Iran, but this so-called aid flotilla was never more than an act of provocation, daring Israel to intervene.   This was a trap that Israel should have foreseen and avoided.

Having realised that they can’t defeat her on the battlefield – despite vast superiority in numbers, Israel’s neighbours have changed tactics and, since 1973, their aim has been to win the global PR war.  They have been brilliantly successful, while successive Israeli governments have been pathetic. 

There is now a real risk of Israel being condemned in the United nations and even having sanctions imposed.  The country’s government must now stop relying solely on its defence forces and get to grips with articulating its case clearly before the court of public opinion – before it is too late.  This is crisis PR with knobs on.