CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling had the look of someone navigating a route through quicksand as he delivered his Pre-Budget Report yesterday.

On the one hand, you want to be bold enough to get out of danger as quickly as possible. On the other, you want to be cautious enough to survive as long as you can.

Either way, you probably end up drowning. This was Mr Darling’s dilemma. On the one hand, should he go for broke and offer up some vote-winning pre-election titbits? On the other, would emphasising the need for cuts and restraint deliver a serious message for serious times?

Either way, he probably ends up losing the election.

Much as the Chancellor emphasised his belief in recovery by the turn of the year it was difficult to forget that his previous predictions have fallen well short of the mark.

He now says the economy will shrink by almost five per cent this year – nearly 1.5 per cent more than his Budget forecast.

Likewise, the public purse is in deficit to the tune of £178 billion – £3 billion more than he predicted.

We agree with some parts of his report. The one per cent pay cap for public sector workers for two years from 2011 is right, despite predictable outrage from the unions.

Many in the private sector have had it far worse over the last two years and those in the public sector cannot be immune from the harsh realities of the recession.

But there is also much to concern all of us in what Mr Darling had to say. From April 2011 the vast majority of workers will be handing over an extra one per cent of their pay following an additional increase in National Insurance payments.

And the expected return to the 17.5 per cent rate of VAT creates more unwanted expense for small businesses.

Whether Mr Darling will be around to implement much of what he announced yesterday is, of course, for the electorate to decide next year.