Stephen McGinty: Darling walks away with a new swagger

ALISTAIR Darling is a man to whom the term "swaggering" is seldom applied. If Spitting Image was still around, his rubber puppet would be shrouded in John Major grey, equipped with Denis Healey's eyebrows and fed a steady diet of peas.

Still, unlike poor David Steel, he is no longer expected to ride around in his patron's top pocket, and, after yesterday's display, there would be a new hue to his pallor, that of Lincoln green.

For the Chancellor, having survived the "forces of Hell", has been reborn as, well, himself, with just a dash of Robin Hood. Yesterday, the Prime Minister, or "Voldemort" as the Tories dubbed him, sat by his next door neighbour's side so patiently and politely that one could imagine Mr Darling turning to pat him on the head. The PM, and everyone else in the chamber, then listened as Mr Darling picked a new fight. Then, somewhere in the West Country, a cornstalk was plucked from between the teeth of a viewer and menacingly ground under heel.

For the nation's 167 billion deficit was, it appears, the fault of cider drinkers who would now be punished with a 10 per cent tax. The Wurzels were last seen rolling up the sleeves of their smocks, sharpening their pitchforks and preparing to trundle down Downing Street in a combine harvester intent on threshing up the new legislation of a man they insisted was not the Darling bud of their May. Not that Mr Darling appeared to give a hoot; he was positively revelling in what he assumes will be his final Budget, and so socked it to the Tories.

The new treaty on tax information agreements he was about to sign with three new countries was not driven, he insisted, by "ideology", but by a belief that individuals should pay their "fair share". When he revealed that these countries just happened to include Dominica, Grenada and … he paused for effect … Belize, residence of Lord Ashcroft, the Conservatives' deputy chairman and principal banker, whose non-dom status has proved distinctly controversial, the House erupted with cheers.

He didn't end there, for the stamp duty limit was to double from 125,000 to 250,000 from last night, a stroke of government generosity to first-time buyers that would be paid for by the more affluent, with those buying homes worth 1 million or more having their stamp duty rise to 5 per cent.

It took Nick Clegg to fire an arrow back at Mr Darling and his band of Merry Men when he pointed out that the Chancellor's upbeat delivery was akin to someone surviving on credit cards but declaring themselves flushed as their phone bill wasn't quite as high as expected. It didn't seem to bother Alistair Darling. When he left the chamber, he swaggered.