A particularly miserable Budget, lockdown inquiry hindsight and David Cameron's cancer revelation: Toby Neal on politics

Tax if you stay, tax if you leave, we all have to pay, Rachel Reeves.

Budgets don't usually do much to raise the spirits, but this one was particularly miserable. Ordinary working people will be asking, in the words of Dusty Springfield (supported by the Pet Shop Boys): What have I done to deserve this?

And those poor Premier League footballers and pop stars in their expensive houses. They'll have trouble selling them as they flee the country.

The tax take is now the highest in British history and the Chancellor still has a direct hike in income tax and VAT up her sleeve any time she feels she can get away with it.

Did you hear Kemi Badenoch's withering attack, mocking Rachel Reeves's oft-stated pride at being the first female Chancellor, and explaining "woman to woman": "People out there aren’t complaining because she’s female. They’re complaining because she is utterly incompetent."

Imagine if it had been a male MP who had launched this barbed criticism, in which she described the Chancellor as "a whining woman wallowing in self pity". There would have been uproar.

You can bet your bottom dollar that Sir Keir Starmer would have expressed outrage and Sir Ed Davey would be calling for resignations and sackings. But they didn't, and haven't.

Does that mean that Kemi Badenoch gets a free pass for such comments purely on the grounds that she is a woman?

Ironic, really, as one of the things she said is: "Real equality means being held to the same standard as everyone else."

Among the weeds of the Budget statement was a comment by the Chancellor which caught my eye, or rather, ear. She said she was scrapping NHS England and reducing back-office staff by 18,000. 

Those people in back offices, they don't do real jobs, you know. Here's a typical recruitment advert: SITUATIONS VACANT. Back office staff. No productive work required - just look busy. Perks include plentiful coffee breaks. 7am start, minimum wage.

The Covid inquiry drags on, but has already produced the big headline. Bumbling Boris acted too little, too late, and 23,000 people died as a result.

So we got the predictable 'too little, too late' cliche with the political bonus of placing blame for the tragedy on Boris Johnson, including a specific number of deaths to pin on him. This is based on disputed modelling, but as it's Boris, nobody cares.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Next time there is a pandemic the Government, having "learned the lessons" of the Covid response, will impose social distancing and lockdown at the very earliest stages. There will inevitably be a public inquiry in the aftermath which at length and at great cost will find that the Government panicked and should have waited before imposing such draconian restrictions.

David Cameron's revelation that he has been treated for prostate cancer has played its part in raising awareness.

At one of those prostate cancer events organised by a local Lions club the expert speaker said something which stuck with me. He said the most common symptom of prostate cancer is no symptoms at all.

I was to have my own journey, as people like to say nowadays, after being tested at one of those Lions events. With my PSA level being elevated, I was sent for a scan, and there was a long face and low-voice moment in which I was told it had detected an "anomaly".

So they made a hole in me to investigate, but it revealed nothing and, the medics clearly deciding it was a result of poor aim, then had 70 little holes made in me in what is known as a template biopsy.

To be honest I have had better days, but the upshot was that that too was clear.

With the benefit of my own experience, I would say that if you have symptoms, get yourselves checked, and if you are over 50 and don't have symptoms, still get yourself checked.