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The Credit Crunch, recession woes, the worst economic downturn in the UK since World War II. The country is in bad shape, and the 2009 Budget is the most important one in decades.

Wiltshire has been particularly hard hit by the financial crisis so in view of that - on Budget Day, Wednesday 22nd April 2009 - 大象传媒 Wiltshire's Mark O'Donnell broadcast his two hour lunchtime radio show from The Crown Pub in Devizes.

Alistair Darling

He was joined by a team of local experts and local people affected by the recession who broke down the specifics of the 2009 Budget as it was announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, and analysed just how things will change.

On the panel are Mike Stannard (Financial Advisor), Michael Williams (Wessex Chamber of Commerce), Andrew MacLachlan (Devizes Chamber of Commerce), Stella Weekes (Mainline Recruitment), Angela Kirkpatrick (Atwell Martin Estate Agents), Tom Harrington (recently made redundant from Woolworths), Jim Lynch (Pub Landlord of the Crown) and Mike Phillips (Pub Landlord of the Bear at Staverton).

Below we updated this page for the duration of the show and posted comments made by the panel during the broadcast as each stage of the 2009 Budget was announced.

Michael Williams

1250 BST

Michael Williams - "The big issue at the moment is cashflow. There are some very healthy businesses around but unless they have cash they could go under"

Our business correspondent Dave Harvey gave his reaction to the Chancellor's promise to work with employers to create or support as many as 250,000 jobs. ..and spend 拢260 million of new money will be allocated for training and subsidies for young people to help them gain skills and experience:

"This morning of course we had those jobless figures for February and in Swindon another 1300 people have started claiming the dole, another 1200 in Wiltshire, and just around here in what used to be the Kennet district of the county, a couple of hundred extra - so there's a big job on."

Andrew MacLachlan - "What we're finding at the moment is turnover is down and staffing costs have gone up, as have energy bills. I had to negotiate a new contract with my energy supplier and just for electricity it 拢19,876 for five months! The company I signed up with was very good and I negotiated that down - I'd urge any other business to try to do the same by talking to them."

1314 BST

Jim Lynch - "2% on alcohol means two percent of duty, not on total price - and it'll depend what strength it is - the stronger the beer the more our customers will have to pay."

Dave Harvey - "The big challenge for the guys in this pub is this extra hike is happening from TONIGHT, so they'll have to change all their prices, tills, everything immediately."

Stella Weekes

1319 BST

Stella Weekes - "Some big figures bandied around - support for employment and training - hopefully Alastair Darling says he's going to guarantee training for every person under 25 years of age. I'm worried about older workers - in the recruitment sector we're finding a lot of people of middle age coming in looking for work who still have lots of years to go and have lots of experience. They have houses and children to support so this budget seems to be very much helping the younger people."

Rachel Pickford, Kennet & Devizes Federation of Small Businesses - "It's interesting that he's deferring further payments on Corporation Tax - that means you have longer to pay - til the end of the year so that should help some of our small businesses in Wiltshire.

"The Enterprise guaranteed scheme just isn't filtering down to our members - small firms are often deemed as too high risk so when they apply the banks just aren't passing the finance on.

"The Chancellor needs to put pressure on the banks to help us out."

Dave Harvey - "Some nice headlines for us here in Wiltshire: Scrappage scheme to trade in a car IS going to happen - you'll get vouchers of 拢2,000 to trade in your old car - that may help the workers at Honda in Swindon.

"Squaddies around Tidworth and Bulford will be pleased with the speeding up of army accommodation projects."

Mike Stannard

1330 BST

Mike Stannard - "I think there'll be an enormous amount of frustrated and very angry pensioners - there's little there for them, particularly those who for years have lived of the interest from savings in the building society. I'm very interested about these tax rises - it's limited what he's doing for ISAs - at the same time he's negating the tax benefit he's giving for savings - it's not exactly encouraging people to invest for the future."

1333 BST

Mike Stannard - "The Chancellor started off by saying if we don't do significant things it's going to be too little too late, but my gut reaction is it's still going to be too little too late."

"There's nothing hugely significant for small businesses, he's talking about freeing up money but that's not trickling through so far.

"Good news for builders and the army in Wiltshire with the accommodation, but apart from that there's not a huge amount."

Michael Williams

1340 BST

Miichael Williams - "We're very disappointed - a missed opportunity. Apart from the development for housing, there's very little - seeing as we're near the canal I'm just going to have a drink while we contemplate jumping into the water!"

Rachel Pickford - "Disappointed in fuel tax - it always goes up. All that means is squeezing the small businesses again and again."

Andrew MacLachlan - "Nothing for small businesses at all - fuel going up will hit us, and alcohol going up is just dreadful."

1350 BST

The West's Political Correspondent Paul Barltrop - "Certainly no dramatic announcements in this Budget - this is the start of the "claw back" if you like. And we've heard more about the debt which is pretty huge - the contraction is much bigger than what had been predicted.

"Fuel going up, booze, fags and the various efficiency savings being made will claw back some of the money the Government's given away over the past few months."

"For lower income people there's no real big hit, but there's little good news generally around at the moment."

1357 BST

Paul from Wadworths Brewery - "It's another tax on relaxation unfortunately - we're losing 40 pubs across the country every week so we're concerned.

Stella Weekes

Stella Weekes - "Lots more help for under 25s so that's positive, but I am very worried about the mid-age range being made redundant."

"We were looking for a bit more support for small businesses - how are we going to give jobs to younger people when we're struggling to pay staffing costs and energy bills."

Tom Harrington - "We do need to get the young people into work but there's very little job creation for the country and the county - apart from projects to modernise military housing there's not a lot for Wiltshire."

Andrew from The Bear Hotel - "What's there for small businesses and our industry? Another hit for us."

Michael Williams - "We were looking for something to improve confidence and there's little for businesses of all sizes. A missed opportunity!"

Mike Stannard - "Over-optimistic growth targets I think of how we're going to pay听 it back . The banks have had all this money and there's very little in it to make them pay it back.

Dave Harvey

Dave Harvey - "The big headline we got from the Chancellor today is Britain is 拢175bn in the red - this pub isn't a very happy place.

"There are a lot of people queuing up at the Chancellor's door asking for money, and the news is there isn't any."