Andrew Dickens Afternoons

I think it’s a good time to talk about business confidence as we approach the budget this Thursday. Because everyone is talking about it.The government is trying to convince everyone that they’re prudent guardians of the public purse, while the opposition is desperately trying to convince us that we’re going to hell in a handcart.This is a difficult line for Simon Bridges to pursue.  On one hand he’s trying to tell the country that Labour has loads of cash because of his party’s fiscal management.  That the rock star economy is still singing a sweet tune. Yet on the  other hand he’s saying we’re on the verge of an apocalypse.Meanwhile Grant Robertson, the invisible man of politics who seems to have been beavering away on his first budget, is telling everyone to brace themselves to be disappointed.  That there won’t be a budget blowout and that he’s going to be as miserly with the purse strings as Bill English.  That said, he’ll be putting some band aids over areas of the economy that National neglected.Who’s