Budget 2022 is almost upon us. There was a time when I, naively, believed that articles like this published in the run up to budget day might have some influence on the decisions to be made. I’ve learnt that that is not the case, for reasons both good and bad. The good is that lengthy, careful (albeit often flawed) analysis goes into any major budgetary change. The bad is that budgets are intensely political balancing acts and the intrinsic merits of a proposal with limited political support are unlikely to deliver results. It’s a little bit like jumping from a…