2p or nor 2p

Once you've been governing for a while, it gets trickier and trickier to please the electorate. In 1997, Labour MPs could earn plaudits and praise just for not being Tory MPs. Eleven years on, and an apparently positive move to postpone increases on fuel duty - a significant expense for consumers and business - has been greeted as cynical electioneering.

There are good grounds for this cynicism of course - with Glasgow East in the balance, the Government is desperate not to let what should be a staunch Labour seat fall to the reinvigorated Nationalists. But with everything in Scotland going against Labour; from the fiasco of finding a candidate in the first place to the fact that the Scottish Socialist Party candidate also has the surname Curran (and may therefore confuse the voters), the premonitions look bleak.

It remains to be seen whether this budgetary move shores up the worrying polls, or just adds fuel to the opposition's fire. If you're a gambler, odds on a SNP victory are 11/8...