Budget: youth, over 70s get spending promises

Gordon Brown has promised every teenagers until the age of 18 will have a choice of education or training, while maintaining the government's target of a 50% participation rate in tertiary education. Spending on education will rise from 4.7% of GDP in 1997 to 5.6 of GDP by 2007/8. This equals an increase of £8.5bn between now and the end of the current spending review period. Council tax receives a nod with the announcement that pensioners over age 70 will recieve an additional £100 per household on top of existing winter fuel allowances to deal with the cost of rising council taxe...