Morning Report: March 21st

Today’s news is obviously dominated by events in Libya – especially as MPs vote on military action today – but as Luke Akehurst has noted on LabourList this morning, it’s important to remember that there are two events this week – the budget and the TUC national demo – that will have a huge impact on the political battle over the economy.

That march this Saturday – which we’ll be covering live on LabourList – looks set to be attended by in excess of 100,000 protesters, and has led the police to look into “untried tactics” to control the march, which may include kettling. That might be something of a risky strategy with so many protesters.

Saturday’s march is likely to focus heavily on the measures drawn up by Osborne as part of his budget on Wednesday. We’ve already heard media rumblings that NI and Income Tax are to be merged, and now there are predictions that the government could receive an £8 billion windfall. The battle over the coming days may well be between those who wish to see a windfall spent on growth-orientated strategies and those who wish to see it used to cut the deficit faster.

And the award for minister most likely to be writing a Daily Mail editorial this week goes to Chris Grayling, who has railed against “Health and Safety”, arguing that such regulations stifle business. Health and safety inspections are set to be cut by a third, which is likely to please many on the right, although the changes are likely to be attacked by trade unions.