With 414 days to go before the general election on 7 May next year this Budget was always going to be seen to be cocking if not quite firing the starting gun on the election campaign although in truth the runners have been starting to take their position on the starting line for a while. The major political parties have been marking out their territory and tussling for ownership of flagship policies on tax. Whilst the Conservatives have championed the reduction of corporation tax to 20% Labour committed at their party conference to reverse the scheduled corporation tax cut from 21% to 20% and use the revenue for cuts in business rates.
The Liberal Democrats have pledged to raise the personal allowance to £12 500 and Labour want a...