GORDON Brown may have had the task of presenting the last Budget of this century, but yesterday the Chancellor was clearly looking ahead to the next one and laying the foundations for Labour being returned to power in 2001. For this-something-for-everyone Budget - for pensioners and families especially - not only astutely spread the feel-good factor now, but was also designed to drip-feed more into the voters' mood in the run-up to polling.

Typical of the some-now, more-later cleverness was his package of income tax cuts.

The long-promised, headline-grabbing 10p starting rate may have been trailered well in advance, setting the scene for a "good" Budget, but the cut in the basic rate that Mr Brown then pulled out of the hat - bringing it down to 22p - is timed to benefit voters next year.

And, similarly, the slow-fuse approach has been employed to dull the stings that the Chancellor delivered yesterday to the middle classes - the removal of tax relief on mortgages and scrapping of the married couples' allowance.

For their impact will be reduced by the forthcoming cut in income tax and by the replacement of the married couples' allowance with the new children's tax credit from 2001 - probably arriving bang on time to give Labour a boost in their general election campaign.

And, meantime, as the tax burden on the income of a typical family with children starts to fall below 20 per cent for the first time in 20 years, they are given another treat as child benefit goes up by £2.95 a week and, in contradiction to the pundits' forecasts, stays untaxed.

But how have these giveaways come about?

Much credit and recognition of his skill as a Chancellor must go to Mr Brown's engineering of government underspending overall, but the "stealth" taxes he introduced in his first two years have assisted him in building up this cleverly-constructed war chest for the first general election of the 21st Century.

But at least people are getting the money back in all sorts of ways - the elderly given a minimum income guarantee going up in line with earnings and a five-fold increase in their winter allowance to help with heating; businesses, particularly small ones, are given a tax-cut boost and extra spending is announced for crime prevention, public transport, schools and hospitals.

All of this takes a lot of the sting out of petrol going up to more than £3 a gallon - and even this is offset by a "green" cut of £55 in road tax for small cars - while smokers hammered by the 17p extra on a packet of 20 cigarettes will have to acknowledge that Mr Brown gave priority to health rather than his own concerns at the massive loss of revenue caused by tobacco smuggling.

Overall, this is a clever and well-constructed Budget - for now and for later.

And what marvels has the Chancellor in store in his next one?

Oh, how the Tories must mourn.

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