Not a budget for Britain

The last Labour budget before the General Election has been about as much of a damp squib as it is possible for a pre-election budget to be - but I have a feeling that it has done enough to placate Labour voters to ensure that the next budget will not be delivered by George Osborne.

Given that the Labour Party is taking direction from the Unite union which in turn is taking direction from the Communist Party it was the kind of "bash the rich" budget we've come to expect from Labour while in office, but without the large bribes they would normally offer at the same time.

However, perhaps the biggest indication of just how much Labour are under the influence of the unions is the total lack of commitment to cut spending. Instead, the public sector share of the economy is expected to rise from 54% this year to 75% in 2014/2015.

We've seen it already with the unexpected announcement that unemployment has fallen. It didn't really fall - the number of people employed in the productive private sector continues to drop substantially. All that is happening is that the state is employing more and more people in non-productive public sector jobs and this rampant rise in the client state is taking up the shortfall in private enterprise employment.

The budget, to be quite frank, is a total fudge. Darling has failed to take the necessary steps to curb the public sector and has simply done the obvious thing of putting up tax. He's demonstrated no interest in repairing the economy - only in shoring up Labour's shaky credentials with its biggest financiers and disillusioned supporters.

It may be enough to keep Labour in power, but it's not going to save this nation from financial collapse. Once again we see where this government's priorities lie - and Britain and the British people come last.