Daily catch-up: what if George Osborne doesn’t have a secret ideological plan?

Plus collaboratorium – that’s not a word! And another lovely view of old London

1. Time for another photo of old London. Rob Baker gives us Oxford Circus, 1918.

2. We are still trying to assess the Budget. Richard Mellor discovered that it included subsidising silly words. Deep in the Treasury documents he found £138m of funding for a UK Collaboratorium for Research in Infrastructure and Cities.

Chris Dillow, meanwhile, considered the appalling possibility that George Osborne might not have a hidden agenda. It is a common view that the Chancellor is using the deficit as an excuse for pursuing his secret objective, that of a smaller state. But as Dillow says,

“why use a lousy argument about the deficit as cover for a more respectable one, the desirability of a small state?”

And Atul Hatwal considers the political precedents:

“The Budget was Labour’s last chance. History is clear about what happens next ... Over the past 50 years, Labour has lost an average of four percentage points in the last two months before an election.”

3. Quiz question from LabourList:

Which politician has been on Question Time the most? (Clue: It’s a Labour MP...)

4. Michael Moran records the romance novel title, concept, and cover of the year (right). As he says, no contest.

5. Thanks to Moose Allain for this:

“I want to be the world’s most unsuccessful limbo dancer.”

“OK but you're going to need clearance at the highest level.”

6. And finally, thanks to Andy Ryan (who incidentally wins today’s prize for best Twitter biography: “Awful night at the theatre. Turns out Carmen isn’t the musical version of Top Gear”) for this from last summer, via Moose Allain:

“Knock, knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“The undertaker. Good job I checked.”