Nor did he mention the millions of people that will be affected by this pernicious 'tax on jobs'. The fact is that, as I have said previously in my blog, it is everyone in the country who will really be paying for the banking industries injudicious sub-prime lending.

So we are back once again to trying to hoodwink the population by stealth taxes which politicians think that 'Joe public' does not notice or will soon forget.

There was an increase in the SDLT exemption for first time buyers on houses up to £250,000; but for 2 years only. The question must arise, apart from the South East, how many first time buyers will be in the market for a £250,000 property! Nevertheless we should not look gift horses in the mouth.

Darling indicated that this would not be a drain on the Exchequer since it would be funded by increasing stamp duty on houses over £1m, from 4% to 5%. No mention was made in any press releases that this increase would be limited to a period of 2 years. So we must realistically expect this to be with us indefinitely. How long will it be before the temptation to put stamp duty up to 5% on commercial properties over £1m becomes too hard to resist.

Watch this space!

One item of potentially great news for the Midlands is the plan to move 15,000 civil servants out of London into lower cost areas. I was delighted to see in today's Birmingham Post that Councillor Whitby is campaigning robustly to get as possible of these jobs relocated for Birmingham.

This might generate some jobs for the area, if individuals are not prepared to relocate north of Watford.

But what it should do is to present significant opportunities to boost the economy, not only by the take up of empty office accommodation, house lets/sales, but also through more money spent locally.