...first live football matches, they might have chosen Arsenal vs Blackburn on Saturday. 

As luck would have it, this was my boy's first ever trip to the Arsenal.  I had to explain that Arsenal do not always score in the first 90 seconds, that his hero Robin Van Persie does not always score hat-tricks, that my hero Thierry Henry does not always score with the last kick of the game, that we do not always play against 11 (and then 10) men who stand still, and that no, we do not always win 7-1.  But, I'm not sure he believed me.  He wants to go next week.

...Budgets, what would George Osborne say on 21 March? 

He would repeat his 2009 ambition for “...a Conservative Treasury to be in the lead of developing the low–carbon economy and financing a green recovery”.  He would agree with his Cabinet colleague, Caroline Spelman, that "this should be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state".  He would endorse the findings of this Government's own UK National Ecosystem Assessment and say that we have failed to properly value the environment in decision-making. 

I am sure that he would go further and say that the natural environment underpins global economic performance and environmental safeguards do not prevent good development. He would offer practical examples of developments that have gone ahead and been improved as a result of such protections. He would refer to the London Gateway port development on the Thames, which progressed with reduced environmental impacts, and new areas of habitat created to compensate for those damaged. 

He would clarify his views about aviation expansion, by caveating his ambitions for maintaining the UK's international aviation hub status as being conditional on meeting environmental commitments to reduce carbon emissions and to protect internationally important natural assets such as the Thames Estuary.  And finally, he would say that the environment is no barrier to growth, it underpins it, which is why he plans to place the natural environment at the heart of his policies for the UK’s economic recovery.

That would be a Budget worthy of any government wishing to be the greenest ever.

...Monday mornings, you'd read this, and feel motivated to write to the Chancellor to recommend the right pre-Budget drink.

Have a good week.