Noonan relabeling Budget 2012 “less ‘Fair’, more ‘Barnum and Bailey’”

Sources close to government have revealed that in a last minute tweak to his annual Yuletide Dreadfest, Axewielder in Chief Michael Noonan has today relabeled this year’s budget as “less ‘Fair’, more like ‘Barnum and Bailey’”.

In the past fortnight, as the government sprung more leaks than Irish pipes in winter, the Limerick Slasher has been repeatedly quoted as saying that this budget would be ‘Fair’, a description increasingly at odds with the content of each new government “KiteFlyeruuhhImean"leak"”.  Sources say that the comment was taken out of context and it’s continual use has been causing ire in the Money Man’s office in the run up to his Big Day.

“That’s not what I said at all”, Mr. Noonan is reported as clarifying, curling up on his huge, cosy pile of money today, “What I said was that this year’s budget would be like a fair.  You know, bells, whistles, swings and roundabouts, and punters losing their shirts on a three cup trick.  As it turns out, in actual fact, the analogy, such as it is, is rather appropriate, in that this year’s budget will be somewhat like a fair, only on a slightly, eh, eh, larger scale.  That perhaps of a Barnum and Bailey-style three ring circus.  You know jugglers, high wire balancing acts, contortionists (of the truth) and ah, a bunch of clowns running around trying to put out the fire with a thimbleful of water”.

Michael “Smaug” Noonan will deliver his Budget Address from The Lonely Mountain at 2.30 today.