Daily catch-up: Fine March morning for a Budget of academisation

'Osborne suffers from being the Microsoft to Cameron’s Apple': Budget preview; and another Scottish landscape

Another of Claudia Massie's lovely Scottish landscapes: a March morning, Glen Quaich.

µ It's Budget day, kicking off at 12.30 after Prime Minister's Questions.

The newspapers are full of a lot of stuff about schools. They are all going to be academies, which is fine, but a rather pointless dilution of one of New Labour's best policies, not least because there are not yet enough academy chains as good as Ark to run them all. Also, it is needlessly centralising: diversity of school providers is a virtue. And also, what have academies and the length of the school day (The Sun, a "news" story so old it can't be reliably carbon dated) to do with the Chancellor?

I tried to issue a pre-emptive ban on the non-word academisation yesterday, but sadly failed. The database ClipShare records 15 instances of it in this morning's newspapers.

µ "Osborne suffers from being the Microsoft to Cameron’s Apple": terrific line from Tom Mludzinski of ComRes, writing about Osborne's leadership ambitions.

µ Here is the fine scoop by Ben Chu, The Independent's economics editor, on John McDonnell's new fiscal rules that so annoyed Seumas Milne, Jeremy Corbyn's director of communications (Guido Fawkes reports his being overheard complaining that McDonnell had given the story to The Independent). However, despite McDonnell's ingenious entryism, adopting Ed Balls's policy as a transitional demand to expose the contradictions of capitalism, it will be Corbyn who replies to the Budget statement today.

µ This by Jake Wilde in response to Owen Jones is a model of courteous disagreement on the delicate subject of Labour and anti-Semitism.

µ And this by Twll Dun is superb on how parties change from narrow to broad and vice versa.

µ Good word, improble, coined by Prospect on Archie Brown's essay on leaders in history. I think it means "improbable but unprovable":

Prospect, March 2016

µ And finally, thanks to Moose Allain ‏for this:

"Keep having a weird feeling I've seen The Phantom Menace before. Probably just déjàjà vu."