If the City experts are to be believed drivers, smokers and those with a penchant for an increasingly popular tipple are in for a rough time next week. For when the Chancellor strides up to the despatch box on Tuesday we are, according to current opinion, to be treated to a Budget in which motorists, users of the weed and lovers of alcopops will foot the bill for the tax cuts with which our Ken will woo voters towards the Conservative cause in next year's General Election. For months the noises from Government have been specifically designed to make us believe that Mr C will actually resist the temptation to produce a vote catching Budget, preferring to pull a package out of the famous red box which keeps the country on the economic straight and narrow ­ whatever the effect on Mr and Mrs Average Briton. It should, of course, be remembered that the Government has promised to raise fuel duties by at least 5% in real terms and it has also pledged to increase tobacco tax by three percentage points above inflation. Meanwhile, alcopops are a soft target. A doubling of the tax here would please all anti-alcohol campaigners, particularly those concerned with under-age drinking. In addition, a packet of cigarettes may, therefore, go up by 11.3p and a litre of petrol by 2.9p. Adding to the drama next week will, we are promised, be a cut in the basic rate of income tax by 1p to 23p in the pound, with a firm pledge to eventually reduce it to 20p. Thus the Chancellor will bribe the blue collar Tories who kept Mrs T in Number 10 but who, in recent years have become disillusioned by tax increases. But as the preambles to many Budgets in recent years have proved, we are often treated to a smart bout of news management. A tough line is skilfully projected across newspapers and TV screens, only for a more comfortable version to emerge on the day. So why should this year be any different? However, taxes must rise eventually, whichever colour is most prominent next May. So perhaps it will be a case of a live now, pay later Budget?{{NEWS}}