Not too much to get excited about in this afternoon's Budget for businesses.A few bits of help for small and growing firms, but mainly disappointment the 1% National Insurance hike and the 2.5p-a-litre fuel duty rise will still go ahead.
Chancellor Alistair Darling's eve-of-election set-piece was quite clearly an attempt to move the Government firmly into old Labour terrority with a Robin Hood-style giveaway. The most obvious example of this was increasing the zero stamp duty threshold to £250,000 and the 1% rise to 5% for those buying homes for £1m or more.
This may have been a desperate bid to win votes just weeks away from polling day, but it is also likely to have been influenced by an increasingly vocal union movement.
Unite, the Labour Party's biggest donor, is already causing chaos at British Airways, with a second wave of strikes planned for this week. Rail union the RMT has also threatened walkouts.
Yesterday, 8,000 GMB members at British Gas voted overwhelmingly for industrial action after claiming the company is about to cut 25% of frontline staff and the management were bullying workers.
Shop stewards will meet at the British Gas service centre in Aylestone Road, Leicester, tomorrow to decide what type of action to take.
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