Week in Westminster - 13/03/2010

Peter Riddell of The Times looks behind the scenes in Westminster. There is a strange atmosphere in the House of Commons these days as everyone awaits the announcment of the general election. There will be a budget on March 24th but what kind of budget will it be, coming as it does just before an election? Lord Lamont, who, as chancellor in John Major's government, produced a budget in similar circumstances in 1992, joins Robert Chote of the Institute of Fiscal Studies to speculate on the budget to come. If, as current opinion polls suggest, the election does not produce a working majority for one party, what happens next? Robert Hazell of the Constitution Unit at University College, London and the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Wallace, who has been part of past coalitions in the Scottish parliament, discuss the procedures for hung parliaments and coalitions. Also in the programme: For the record number of MPs entering the new parliament, what changes, if any, will they find? And former cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt gives her thoughts on leaving the House of Commons after 13 years.