WE'RE being primed to expect it. So Chancellor Kenneth Clarke's latest speech warning about there being no big tax cuts in the autumn budget came as no surprise.

His keynote speech to the annual bankers' dinner at the Mansion House has long been recognised as a yardstick of his future intentions.

And the man who holds the nation's purse-strings made it clear there will be no pre-election boom in a bid to woo voters.

He stressed, instead, his expectations for economic acceleration and claimed Britain was "the most liberal, open and outward-looking economy in Europe".

And he had high hopes of unemployment falling below two million by the next election.

In other words, Mr Clarke had very little new to say. The speech was nothing more than a re-hash of previous comments, with little concrete hope for the millions of unemployed, or the millions struggling in the poverty trap.

Mr Clarke must be a worried man. Over the years, his predecessors have duped the electorate with quick fix pre-election tax cuts and the promise of more to come - only to see the newly-elected government fail to deliver.

Sooner or later, it was inevitable the winning formula would fall down.

Should Mr Clarke press on with the hard-line no cuts option? Or will popularity polls persuade him to risk a last-minute give-away?

Whatever the choice, he must realise the British electorate is now far too sophisticated to vote for the party which hands out the most toffees, only to find the tin's empty after the election.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.