WITH reference to the Budget, it never fails to amaze me the sleight of hand displayed by Chancellors in manipulating the balance sheets of the economy and playing the joke in this game of poker.

In one hand, they raise the state pension and with the other they freeze pension increases in the public sector across the board.

Then the ace of clubs is produced in the form of ever-diminishing interest paid into ones meagre savings, including those encouraged to play the ISA game, which in the past 12 months has shown a drop in interest rates by at least two thirds, thereby making any increase in pensions null and void.

If and when the present Chancellor is made redundant, I have the ideal job vacancy – working in a fast food (sorry) money chain of shops, or starring in a remake of The Colour of Money, which is fast disappearing; providing his curriculum vitae stands up to interrogation.

Kenneth Bowker, Vesper Walk, Huntington, York.