GORDON Brown's budget today was in the words of one commentator "a classic Labour promise to look after people from the cradle to the grave".

And certainly babies and pensioners were the big winners in a financial strategy which would have pleased the founders of the Welfare State.

But Chancellor Gordon Brown also had a nod towards developing the nations and regions outside London, motorists and spirit drinkers.

The main focus of its proposals was to provide every child born since September last year their own trust fund worth £250 rising to £500 for the poorest one third.

With extra cash put in by the government during school years and parents and grandparents able to pay in extra, by the age of 18 the young people will have the cash to have the choices available once only to the wealthy.

Whether that fund will pay for their university tuition fees was studiously ignored by Mr Brown.

But he made a clear commitment to these young people's grandparents and great grandparents.

He abolished the food and lodging deduction from their pensions which so angered many elderly people.

Now after six weeks within hospital they have to pay "hotel charges" out of their benefit.

From today they will not face this deduction until they've been in hospital for a year.

He raised the pensioners minimum income guarantee and pension credit threshold and promised that those over 80 will find that their annual Winter Fuel Payment has gone up by 50 per cent from £200 a year to £300.

Mr Brown conveniently forgot to take responsibility for the derisory 75p a week pension increase that cost Labour so many council seats at the last major local government elections.

If many young families and pensioners in East Lancashire will benefit, the Chancellor offered more hope to the North-West region by pledging action to shift 20,000 jobs out of London.

He said he'd ordered an inquiry into how to remove civil service posts from the overheated South East of England to places like East Lancashire.

There was extra cash for small firms and research and development, especially in manufacturing.

Local authorities are to get extra powers to keep new income in business rates from the creation of new firms and regional job centres will get extra powers to provide grants to those in search of work in high employment areas.

However those who refuse jobs will face new penalties.

The motorist did well with a six month delay in extra fuel duties and inflation increase in road tax.

Spirit drinkers - and those whose favourite tipple is cider and sparkling wine - saw their taxes frozen.

Beer drinkers face just an annual inflation rise of a 1p a pint and wine drinkers just an extra duty of 4p a bottle.

In a bravura report designed to baffle many - if not most - listeners Mr Brown managed to appear both the New Labour friend of business of the old Labour friend of the poor and deprived.

His praise of our armed forced in Iraq and commitment to tacking poverty hid some unpalatable truths.

While he promised to keep up his payments to public services and to the cost of the Gulf conflict, he also revised down his projections for growth, business investment and manufacturing output.

He also increased borrowing and raised the spectre of future tax increases.

It was a typical Gordon Brown performance - the big picture looks splendid but there was a lot of very worrying devils hidden in the detail.