Finance Minister yesterday spoke of the ?quiet desperation? suffered by those priced out of the housing market.

Hector suffered his own quite desperation during yesterday?s lengthy Budget speech as he forlornly waited for details on when and where Government would ever deliver on its promises to house its people rather just spend its people?s money.

Harbourside Village, the project which ran aground when nobody bothered to move businesses from the site, was once again floated as Government?s housing flagship.

Hector feels another shipwreck is looming given the lack of specifics on start dates and locations while he is less than inspired by a new, even vaguer possible plan to build 96 homes elsewhere, somewhere, anywhere.

Budgets, normally associated with dry hard facts, are now the stuff of flights of fancy.

But vagueness is now the order of the day with a Government which in recent times has held two press conferences on Club Med ? the first claimed a developer had been found but failed to name them. The second named the developer ? who wasn?t present ? but gave no start date.

Meanwhile Government seemed firmer about its own plans for accommodation. A HQ in London is needed to lobby the British. Over what one wonders? Hector could be wrong but last time he checked was New York Attorney General, not Mayor of London.

Are they trying to steal a march on referendum campaigner who has already pledged to press his case in Westminster after being snubbed by ?

Cynics might spot an obvious attempt to set up an embassy-in-waiting for the PLP?s dream of Independence but Hector thinks Mr. Scott might need a bolt-hole to flee to when yet another housing promise turns to dust and ?quiet desperation? turns into something a whole lot uglier.

Certainly he was unique among the assembled politicians and hacks in being excused most of the re-run of Ms Cox?s two-hour Budget speech when he left the Press Conference at the Cabinet Office to head to the Caymans.

He missed a treat as an angry Col. Burch (is there any other sort?) tried to bat away questions about the latest Berkeley debacle before a sympathetic hack from the Worker?s Voice came to his aid. It certainly made for light relief from the tedium of the budget which made up for in verbiage and repetition what it had lacked in clarity.

Ms Cox had told us about plans for reverse colonisation in London on page 9 and then again on page 37. The extra $25 million for housing we were told about on pages two, seven and 22, 23, 25 and 25, while the extra cash for seniors got a showing on page two, four, five and 40.

Surprisingly the five percent rise in rise in vehicle licences didn?t merit the same message reinforcement and Hector doesn?t recall it being mentioned at the press conference where the 51-page Budget speech was reduced to 25 leaden pages.

That second speech was primarily for the benefit of the TV cameras who are barred from filming in Parliament.

That may change as Government put aside $800,000 for its TV channel and increased bodies in its already large press office.

Hector, who has already questioned the partiality of Gov-Prop 1, fears the worst given yesterday?s performance.

Avid budget watchers who wanted ?to follow along with the Minister? on the web as she delivered her speech were left frustrated as the site failed to work until the speech was all but over. More quiet desperation? They didn?t miss much.