Yesterday’s budget wasn’t exactly all sunshine and chocolates for the nation (borrowing nearly £200 billion isn’t exactly good news, even for the Russian Oligarchs’ club, let alone the government), but one interesting aside that came out of the whole debacle was the Conservative’s online attempt to ambush Alistair Darling’s budget speech. How? By buying up Google keywords and directing internet users to its “live rebuttal” of the Chancellor’s speech.

Now I’m no politician, but I do know social media. And this was an awesome example from the Tories of how manipulating Google can work in your favour, in this case grabbing a portion of the limelight away from the government to put forward their own policies (although, Labour’s policies are probably doing enough to send the public to the Conservative site regardless).

The idea was a simple one. Whenever a budget-related keyword was entered into Google, the reader would be directed to online ads for the Conservatives, which would in turn direct the reader to the Conservative Party website and a “live rebuttal” of Darling’s proposals.

Now politics can be a murky business at the best of times (you don’t need me to mention the smear-gate debacle of recent weeks), but this was just good media-manipulating skills from the Tories. Any journalist worth the media degree he bought online (no? just us then) knows the value of using Google to promote his stories. So why shouldn’t other professionals use it? It’s just good business sense.

And as for the budget? Well. Someone mentioned that it was nearly to the day back in 1943 that Britain scrapped the £1,000 note. Maybe we should bring that back too, eh?