Budget 2010 blog: It's the ties what have it!

What happens if you mix red with blue - you get purple - and that just happened to be the colour worn by most of the Labour front budget during the budget.

Is it too much to suggest that they were trying to show their red labour roots mixed with a bit of true blue Tory prudence?

The Labour party looked quite smug, but then again they knew what was coming, while the Conservatives also looked quite cocky - for a while, until they the Belize word was mentioned.

Gordon Brown had teased them in the preamble debate before the budget speech by mentioning Belize's most famous ‘resident', Michael Ashcroft.

The Conservatives probably hoped it would the last time they heard his name today, but they didn't know the chancellor had something in his back pocket to get the story running again.

It was a funny old budget - most of the details trailed in this morning's FT, except for the useful bit about indexing ISA limits each year - and was just another episode in the general election campaign.

But was it also the start of Alistair Darling's bid to be prime minister?

It certainly looked like it. He delivered his speech impeccably, he didn't go on too long by some standards and did enough to remind anyone he'd done a decent job over the last 12 months trying to sort out the mess.

Of course it's a mess his boss Gordon Brown created, say some, and he has been doing his best to tidy it up.

Channelling the extra revenue from banker's bonuses into plans to encourage small businesses was a meaningless, throw away line that plays into the hands of those looking for Labour to redistribute wealth.

Was it a budget for an election? Of course it was but it was not such a blatant give away that it will have moved the polls that much.

The day's session in Parliament started with a goodbye to one of the characters of British politics, Dr Ian Paisley, and finished with Alistair Darling enhancing his reputation as a chancellor.

It might be his last budget before an election, but it is surely not the last budget he will stand behind.

What price a snap election?